Xwell (XWEL) shares roughly quadrupled on Wednesday after the global health and wellness company announced a $31.3 million private placement agreement with American Ventures. The transaction includes the sale of 31,333 preferred Series H shares, convertible into 66.7 million common shares at an initial conversion price of $0.47.
Additional warrants to purchase another 66.7 million common shares accompany the offering, exercisable immediately at $0.345 per share with a three-year expiration.
Note that today’s meteoric run saw XWEL stock print a new 52-week high of $1.52.
While the market initially reacted with an explosive rally since the capital infusion strengthens the company’s balance sheet, the structural reality is that this deal presents a huge dilution risk for existing shareholders.
Given that warrants are exercisable at $0.345, and Xwell stock is already trading well above that, American Ventures has an immediate incentive to exercise them and sell common shares to lock in a massive profit.
This makes the dilution risk particularly significant and XWEL in general a no-go for any seasoned investor, especially considering its leveraged free cash flow of negative $15.1 million, indicating material operational challenges.
Investors are cautioned against investing in Xwell also because it remains a penny stock, which typically means extreme volatility, low liquidity, and minimal transparency.
XWEL has already received a compliance notice from Nasdaq; its failure to sustain today’s gains and remain above a dollar per share for another nine days would, therefore, trigger a delisting threat again.
And that looks rather unlikely given XWEL shares relative strength index (14-day) has soared into the mid-80s, indicating extremely overbought conditions that often precede a sharp correction.
In short, unless Xwell can prove it can convert this capital infusion into sustainable operational profitability and revenue growth, there’s hardly a reason for serious investors to chase momentum in this penny stock.
Investors should also note that Xwell stock doesn’t currently receive coverage from Wall Street firms.
