Shares in Irvine-based NuGene International Inc. fell 39% Thursday to $2.61 and a market capitalization of $103 million after the skincare products development company said yesterday that it had no affiliation with a 28-page mailer touting the stock, but the stock recovered some ground Friday morning.
The share price had jumped by two-thirds in the last month. It now stands at about the same price it sold for when stock websites that cover smaller publicly traded companies began to take notice of the printed promotional piece.
The websites cite the mailer’s claims of NuGene’s share price potential, and one notes a shareholder had acquired 11 million shares in the company since March 2014, at an average price of one-third of a penny.
Some 2.7 million shares traded hands today as the stock price fell from $4.31 to $2.61. It traded Friday at about $3.20.
NuGene “has no [investor relations or public relations] program underway and is not affiliated with the promotional materials’ author or its affiliated entities or persons,” said Ali Kharazmi, chief executive of NuGene, in a statement.
He said recent press releases have provided only “disclosure of legitimate and ongoing corporate activities.”
NuGene press releases over the past 30 days deal with patent applications, research studies, trade conferences, and the company’s most recent quarterly report, issued May 18, in which the company said it had sales of $481,360 in the quarter ended March 31.
