SMALL CAPS: Seeing Machines Captures Market Attention

I’m going to start this week with a little complaint (no change there).

Why is AIM so terrible at recognizing potential, let alone putting a realistic value on it, even when it is crystallizing? Case in point: Seeing machines (up 7 percent this week).

Okay, the company, an eye-tracking specialist, has been in the market for a decade or more. However, in the last two years, its technology, which monitors driver attention, has gained a lot of popularity in the automotive industry.

So much so that this week we learned that it is already installed in more than 2.2 million vehicles. Its closest competitor, the Swedish firm Smart Eye, has not yet reached the 2 million milestone, but its value is 40 percent higher than that of Seeing Machines.

And don’t even get me started on what this company might be valued at if it were based in Silicon Valley: suffice it to say it wouldn’t be £205m.

Anyway, the rant is over. Here is a rational analysis from US investment bank Stifel. It also thinks the company is undervalued for a market leader that, over the next three years, is expected to grow revenue at a compound annual rate of 27 per cent. Its target price of 13p implies a valuation of more than £500m.

As for the broader market, global stock markets have been in a rollercoaster ride as fears of a US recession sparked a global sell-off that has slowly been unraveling.

The AIM All-Share fell 0.6 per cent for the week to 766.48, while the FTSE 100 looks set to end a tumultuous five days as it began.

Near the top of the loser pile was Orchard Financing Groupwhich fell 32 percent after revealing that its largest client had entered bankruptcy.

Orchard, which provides insurance premium finance, had lent around 80,000 customers of Nukula Ltd, trading under the Insure That brand, a total of £16.7m by the end of June, or around a quarter of its loan book.

The biggest loser of the week, Lung life (down 50 percent), offered no obvious news about its disappearance.

UK Oil & Gas Shares in the company fell 21 percent after completing a £1.25 million fundraising that will help fund the group’s hydrogen storage ambitions. The company took advantage of a strong share price, which has risen around 200 percent in the past month.

Among those who rise, Shield Therapeutics rose 32 percent and its shares have doubled in value over the past four weeks of trading. This is due to unexpectedly strong U.S. prescription data for its anemia product.

Oncimmune was one of the biggest gainers on Friday and will end the week firmly in the green with a 24 percent increase. This came after it won a $1.5 million contract that puts it firmly on track for profitability next year.

Some opportunistic buying before the delisting on August 15 boosted shares of Golden Charat 82 percent higher.

Actions of the data science specialist Jay wing (up 49 percent) continued to rise despite last week’s statement that it did not know why its shares were rising.

Well, here’s one for the watchlist: Graft polymerLast month, the stock price doubled as a quiet transformation began to gain traction among investors.

Under new CEO Anthony Tennyson, the company has made some bold moves, including exiting its specialty chemicals and manufacturing business to focus on its Graft Bio business.

This part of the simplified business focuses on coatings that enhance or modify the bioavailability of a drug, which in simple terms means that they can target the area of ​​the body where the treatment is released. This can be useful if you don’t want your payload to be absorbed by the liver, for example.

Anyway, I digress. Graft has taken its interest in drug development a step further by partnering with Awakn Life Sciences, which is working on a treatment for traumatic disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as depression and addiction.

Awakn’s medical director is David Nutt, a professor at Imperial College and one of the world’s leaders in neuropsychopharmacology. Buckle up, it will be interesting to see where this collaboration goes.