The Cardiex Ltd (ASX: CDX) share price is up 3.9% to 5.3 cents in afternoon trading after the company released a positive update on its half year sales.
The rise comes as the wider All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is slipping, down 0.2% to 6884 points.
What's driving the CardieX share price higher?
In its half year sales and corporate update, CardieX revealed it had achieved record sales for the first half of the 2021 financial year. This puts the health technology company in a position to post a 30% increase in sales compared to H1 FY2020. It's also the strongest first half results the company has posted in 5 years.
The company attributed the strong sales growth to continuing strength in sales to the research market along with new clinical trial contracts with Bayer AG (announced on 20 August).
In a forward-looking statement, CardieX CEO Craig Cooper said:
I expect this strength to continue into next year given the current pipeline of research sales and new clinical trials in process. With widespread vaccine distribution about to commence, I also expect sales to our traditional clinician market to recover strongly as the US comes out of continuing lock-downs and stay-at-home orders.
In an update to the company's previously announced share purchase plan (SPP), Cooper said:
We're targeting to raise $1.0 million under the SPP, however we may decide in our absolute discretion to close the SPP early, scale back applications, or accept an amount above or below the $1.0 million target depending on the level of demand received. We're expecting to close the SPP on Thursday, 31 December 2020.
CardieX also announced the appointment of Steven Kesten as its new chief medical officer and Mark Gorelick as its new chief product officer.
Company snapshot
CardieX is a global health technology company focused on vascular health issues. Its AtCor Medical division develops medical devices for measuring arterial stiffness and central blood pressure waveforms.
After falling for most of the previous 5 years, the CardieX share price has turned around in 2020. Despite dropping 66% during the wider COVID-19 market rout in February and March, CardieX shares are up 73% year-to-date. And up an impressive 420% from the 25 March lows.
