Why Helios and Matheson Stock Sank 10% This Morning

What happened

Believe it or not, money-losing MoviePass parent Helios and Matheson Analytics (NASDAQ: HMNY) is issuing stock to raise cash -- again -- and investors can't believe it. News that Helios has announced yet another issuance of common stock, and even more warrants to purchase even more stock, sent shares down more than 10% in early Wednesday trading.

(Luckily for shareholders, it's regained some of those losses and is now trading down "only" 6.6% as of 1:10 p.m. EDT).

So what

How bad is this news for stockholders, and how much should they expect to get diluted this time? No one knows for sure -- not even Helios.

As described in its press release on the issuance, Helios will use its "best efforts... to issue and sell shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase shares of its common stock." But management doesn't know "the actual size" of its offering, how much it will sell the shares for, or any "terms of the offering" at all.

Now what

For that matter, Helios and Matheson management doesn't know "whether or when the offering may be completed."

About the only thing investors can be certain of is that, as bad as today's news sounds, there's still another shoe (or two) to drop when Helios eventually (1) confirms that the issuance will happen and (2) firms up the details of how little money it will get for selling another batch of shares and how much existing shareholders will be diluted when it does so.

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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.