Applied DNA Sciences pulls back after 6-fold surge in 2 days, after ‘upsized’ equity offering prices

Shares of Applied DNA Sciences Inc. pulled back 5.1% in morning trading Thursday, after the biotechnology company announced the pricing of its “upsized” public equity offering. The stock’s decline comes after it blasted 502.9% higher over the past two days, in the wake of its announcement that it had initiated a validation of its monkeypox virus test. The biotech said Thursday that it’s offering of 3.0 million shares of common stock, and Series A and Series B warrants to buy up to an additional 6.0 million shares, “priced at a premium to market under Nasdaq rules.” The warrants have an exercise price of $4.00 per share, and are exercisable immediately upon issuance. The company expected proceeds of $12 million from the offering. Prior to the company’s announcement of the monkeypox virus test validation, which triggered the stock’s surge, the company had disclosed a public equity offering with expected proceeds of $10 million. After this week’s run up, the stock has still declined 3.2% year to date, while the iShares Biotechnology ETF has dropped 16.0% and the S&P 500 has lost 13.2%.

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