Shares of the biopharmaceutical company, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LXRX) crashed in morning trading on Thursday morning after it announced a stock offering of 23.9 million shares at a price of $2.60 per share. The gross proceeds of this offering are expected to be $62.2 million.
In addition, the company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3.5 million shares at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The public offering is expected to close on or about June 5.
Besides the above stock offering, Lexicon has also agreed to sell 24.15 million shares of its common stock at the same price as its stock offering to raise gross proceeds of around $62.8 million in a private placement to an affiliate of Invus, Lexicon’s largest stockholder. Invus will have the option to purchase, on a pro-rata basis, up to an additional 3.6 million shares of common stock at the public offering price “to the extent the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of common stock.”
Analysts are cautiously optimistic about LXRX stock with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on two Buys and two Holds.
