It's definitely exciting to speculate. Of course it is possible that Neuren decided to pause the buy back because they thought it made sense to hold off committing the $50 million so quickly and they had data that showed heavy selling around $13-$13.50 and solid support in the $12-$12.30 range. But then they knew they would be pausing at the start of 2025 because of the blackout prior to the annual. So why the early halt?? Two less exciting options first.
1) maybe the holiday period and expected reduced trading was a trigger but then they stopped a few days before all that with the first 0 BB day on Wednesday the 18th. Or 2) perhaps they are pushing hard to get the annual report out early and this may link to a minimum number of days to not engage in share purchases prior to its release? I don't know but it seems odd that any restriction would commence before the end of this year.
Now if neither of those are true then we end up with the scenario they have price sensitive information and as you have shown with the listing rules, this has to be announced immediately except in a few circumstances, the most relevant of which relates to incomplete proposals or negotiations. That would fit perfectly with takeover discussions more than anything. It could be argued that filed patents pending acknowledgement from the patent office or an alert to an impending communication from the FDA could also fit that bill. JP plays by the rules and if the FDA had said we will have a response for you first thing after the New Year then he could take that as requiring of a pause in the BB until the message was received and announced to the market. Who knows for sure but it feels like some kind of good news coming soon!
NEU Price at posting:
$12.34 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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