Wall Street sent St. Paul, Minn.-based obesity and GI device maker EnteroMedics’ (NSDQ:ETRM) shares down 8% today after the company missed analysts’ consensus estimate.
The company posted losses of $6.6 million, or 14¢ per share, for the 3 months ended March 31, 2013. That’s a 16.8% widening of losses from the $5.6 million lost during the same period last year for the development-stage company, which did not report sales for its most recent quarter. The posted EPS was also 1¢ shy of the 13¢ per share loss analysts had projected.
ETRM shares dropped 8.4% to 88¢ per share as of 1:40 p.m. today, down from a 95¢ opening price on Wednesday, May 1.
The company said in the report that it has enough cash, including Q1 financing, to cover product development and regulatory approval for the remainder of 2013. As of March 31, EnteroMedics reported $29.6 million cash on hand. In March EnteroMedics closed a $13 million public offering for FDA approval of its Maestro weight loss device.
"EnteroMedics remains well funded to support our regulatory efforts," said Greg Lea, COO & CFO, in company filings. "In addition to our focus on U.S. regulatory milestones, we continue to advance our ex-US strategy by pursuing reimbursement in Australia and applying to strengthen our CE Mark in Europe to include diabetes and hypertension. Our current cash, which includes a financing completed in the first quarter, gives us the necessary resources to execute on these pivotal regulatory and commercialization activities into 2014."
Back in February, the weight loss devices maker lost half of its Wall Street value after its VBloc vagal blocking therapy system failed to meet endpoints in a pivotal trial.