It’s hard to find a company on the eastern side of Pasco County publicly trading shares on a stock exchange, but the newest public company is off to a fast start.
Those who bought shares in CES Synergies at $1 each have already watched their value more than double since shares hit the open market in late January. Tuesday’s close on the Crystal Springs-based full-service environmental, demolition and mold remediation company, was $2.50, coming off a Tuesday high of $2.71 soon after the company released its first yearly financial results.
With that high, someone who invested the minimum $15,000 in the initial offering last year now has paper worth more than $40,650. But the stock market is a tricky place where prices might be high one day and drop the next.
CES released its 2013 financials on Monday, announcing a loss of $161,000 last year, compared to a profit of $389,000 in 2012. That caused shares to dip from its previous high of $2.50 on Friday to $2.35 by the end of the day Monday. Yet, by Tuesday, values were on the rise once again into record territory — likely fueled by a solid fourth quarter for CES, where revenue soared 91 percent compared to the year before.
Clyde Biston, the chairman and chief executive for CES, told investors that growth will likely continue this year, especially with new contracts with the New Orleans Housing Authority, the Florida Department of Transportation and Eglin Air Force Base on the Florida Panhandle.
CES, which trades over-the-counter as CESX, primarily attracts customers that are typically government bodies or large corporations, helping them with various environmental and demolition projects. Last year, its largest clients were FDOT and Sarasota County Schools, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company has 46.5 million shares, which gives CES a paper value of $126.1 million based on Tuesday’s stock close. Yet, right now, CES shares are considered “penny stock,” meaning they are not part of a major stock exchange (like the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq), and are valued at less than $5 per share.
Because of that, a penny stock is not as easy to sell as a stock on a major exchange would be. However, CES has planned from the beginning to make its way to a major exchange as quickly as possible.
Jeff Chartier, president of Strategic Capital Markets of North Miami Beach — who also serves on the CES board of directors — said before a presentation in Zephyrhills last November that the company’s initial offering gave potential investors “a chance to own part of the company, and join us as we’re poised to go on the bigger market,” like Nasdaq.
While the company remains based in Crystal Springs, Biston last year announced plans to move into the upper floors of the former Wachovia Bank building on Fifth Avenue in Zephyrhills, a building he purchased in 2009 for $550,000. Biston at one time offered the building as a potential library site for the city before council members there opted to build a new library near its current site.
