Thirty minutes before the closing bell Friday, volume of Technest Holdings Inc. (OTCBB: TCNH) was at 900,000 – compare that to a daily volume of 50,000 shares a day and there’s bound to be speculation. The extraordinarily high volume prompted a Technest response this afternoon, just after the company reported its 2007 third-quarter results.Technest closed at 31 cents per share Friday afternoon, down 66 percent from Thursday’s closing price. In the press release, the company states that its value is not reflected in Friday’s closing price – and refers investors to its 2007 third-quarter results filed with the SEC Friday and released today.
The homeland security and defense provider released results for the period ended March 31, 2007, reporting third-quarter revenue of $17.95 million, as compared to $17.86 million in the same period of 2006.
“Overall, we are pleased with our third quarter, where our gross profit improvement was due to a larger percentage of high margin services provided compared with lower margin material procurement contracts. Our funded backlog remains strong at over $44 million and we have additional awarded but as yet unfunded contracts in excess of $122 million,” Dr. Joseph Mackin, president and CEO of Technest, said in the statement. “Going forward, we expect to execute additional military contracts in the fourth quarter that have been previously awarded but are awaiting processing. These processing delays were the primary cause of our shortfall in revenue in the nine months ended March 31, 2007, compared to the previous year.”
After the 8:30 a.m. response to the heavy volume, shares rose steadily today, trading at 30 cents by 10 a.m. and closing at 50 cents on volume of 1.4 million.
Market News First placed several calls to the company and its Investor Relations that have not yet been returned. MN1 will continue to follow the company and release an update.
