Right after the biotech company ProKidney announced last summer that it was building a $458 million facility in Greensboro and hiring over 300 workers, the company’s stock was flying pretty high.
However, since then, the fall of the company’s stock price has been nothing short of amazing.
Earlier this month, Bank of America stock analysts downgraded the stock from buy to neutral and slashed the price target from $8 a share to $2 a share. In recent months, the stock has flirted with a price of a dollar a share.
In a financial report released in November 2023, ProKidney officials stated that the company was well capitalized “for its future growth plans,” and did not suggest any change of plans for the Greensboro operations.
The stock was trading at over $13 a share on August 1, 2023, when the future looked golden and the company had just closed on the purchase of a 210,000 square-foot building in Greensboro. There, it plans to put a new facility where the company will make “REACT” – ProKidney’s key product for treating kidney disease.
By late September, the stock had fallen to under $5 a share.
On Wednesday, Jan. 17, the stock traded as low as $1.33 a share and closed at $1.37.
ProKidney stock fell as low as $1.12 per share in late 2023.
The company, which is based out of Winston-Salem, hasn’t said much publicly in recent months. The last press release from ProKidney was on Thursday, Nov. 30 when the company announced that a new chief business officer had been named.
The City of Greensboro, Guilford County, the State of North Carolina and Duke Energy have approved incentives packages that total over $35 million for ProKidney contingent on the company completing its stated plans for its Greensboro operation.
One of chris and big city’s big plans for Greensboro.
This is good reporting. Looking at the financials, this thing is going to pennies or zero. $1 stocks lose their listing, too.
Looking at news on this corporate money-burning outfit, it’s hard to see it would benefit anyone but those on the receiving end of the cash they. You could see this coming a LONG time ago.
Keep your fingers crossed.
I’ve never ceased to be amazed at the stupid decisions made to award many millions of dollars of incentives, if not actual payments (from taxpayers), to these companies based on the hope they’ll employ all these local people, and it will increase the tax base, blah…blah…blah.
The fact is, those businesses historically implode, and it’s not worth it. The local government leaders generally don’t know a damn thing about how to operate a business, and the few that do are on the dole side with the NGO’s they established that do nothing other than generate reports about how they need more government money. They wouldn’t know a viable business proposal if they saw it, so you get all these “equity” appropriations, and we wind up with the mess.
Pay attention who you vote for going forward.
Corporate welfare is just as bad as hood and trailer welfare.
Taxpayer money should not be used to pay corporations to enlarge, build, or move to the area. If the area is attractive and is/will be a benefit to a corporation, tax money should not be paid as an incentive, but up to a corporation to make that decision without incentives. It is very, very selfish for a corporation to ask for incentives. If the location is right, then a shakedown of taxpayers is not necessary. States and municipalities should have the gumption to say “no.” If the state and municipalities are well-run, have educated the population, and are fiscally responsible, any company should jump at the chance to move to the location. Of course, now that I think about it, this disqualifies Greensboro and Guilford County.
There tax incentives are granted only after the taxes are paid in full and all requirements have been met as outlined in the package. If the company doesn’t perform as outlined in the agreement, no tax incentives will be granted.