Key points
- Audio Pixels shares are booming today
- The company released its quarterly update yesterday
- Most of the progress was largely technical in nature
- The Audio Pixels share price has gained less than 2% since January 1
Shares in Audio Pixels Holdings Ltd (ASX: AKP) are booming today and are now trading 14% higher at $22.78 apiece.
Investors are showing support for Audio Pixels today despite there being no market-sensitive information out of the company's camp.
However, it did release its quarterly activities report for the three months ended 31 December 2021 yesterday, which could potentially help explain the momentum in today's session. Let's take a look.
Audio Pixels share price spikes on technical advancements
During the quarter, the company achieved several investment highlights, that were "mostly technical in nature", including:
- Activities supporting the transition of MEMS wafer fabrication to batch processing (production lines, processes and procedures).
- Fabrication and functional validation of Gen-II ASIC controller.
- Activities supporting the transition of Chip Packaging to vendors capable of mass production assembly, processes and procedures.
- Finalising of Fabrication / Production Agreements.
- Development and fabrication of self-contained demonstration systems.
- Expanded the technology portfolio during the quarter as well.
What else happened this quarter for Audio Pixels?
The company notes that its transition to mass production is "progressing according to plans", whereas the MEMS fabrication is also advancing on time.
Probably the most important update for the company last quarter was the settlement of a comprehensive manufacturing agreement with Shanghai-based Earth Mountain Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd.
Audio Pixels says the deal "secures very significant MEMS production and chip packaging capacity" and will transpose the collaboration from research and development into mass-production.
The company notes it has also prioritised the design and production of self-contained demonstration systems.
These systems are specifically designed to be securely provided to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in a way that "permits independent technological assessment".
The company is now awaiting receipt of "packaged chips produced in mass production lines", which is anticipated sometime in March, per today's release.
Aside from that, Audio Pixels left the quarter with $750,000 in cash and equivalents on the balance sheet, up from $479,000 the quarter prior. At its current burn rate, the company estimates it has another 2-3 quarters of funding available, including unused financing of $1.6 million.
What's next for Audio Pixels?
The release notes that management has already begun laying the groundwork to "retool" the company, as it put. It aims to transition from an R&D focused company to "one that is capable of a large-scale global production, marketing and sales".
It also expects to surpass 200 granted patents in its portfolio later this quarter, after making several refinements to its predictive modelling and algorithms in the last few months.
Management did not provide any specific earnings or expenditure guidance in the quarterly update today.
Audio Pixels share price snapshot
In the last 12 months, the Audio Pixels share price has had a difficult time and is more than 4% in the red.
This year to date, it has taken off and gained a little under 2% since January 1 after rallying another 6% in the past week of trading.
