If You Invested $1,000 In TherapeuticsMD Stock One Year Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Investors who have owned stocks in the last year have generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY total return over the last 12 months is 33.6%. But there is no question some big-name stocks performed better than others along the way.

TherapeuticsMD’s Difficult Year: One company that has been a horrible investment in the last year has been pharmaceutical stock TherapeuticsMD Inc TXMD.

TherapeuticsMD’s key technology is SYMBODA, a technology used to develop advanced hormone therapy pharmaceutical products for women. The company also produces prescription prenatal vitamins and over-the-counter vitamins under the BIJUVA, IMVEXXY, vitaMedMD and BocaGreenMD brands.

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At the beginning of 2020, TherapeuticsMD shares were trading at $2.42. By the beginning of March, the stock was down to $1.73 as news of the coronavirus spreading in China prompted concerns about a U.S. pandemic.

When the market crashed during the U.S. pandemic outbreak in March, TherapeuticsMD shares dropped below $1 during the height of the pandemic fears.

Unfortunately, when the market bounced in late March 2020, TherapeuticsMD didn’t initially follow. In fact, the stock hit its 2020 low of 85.3 cents on April 15.

TherapeuticsMD shares jumped as high as $2.24 on strong volume later in the month of April driven largely by the news that the company had secured a patent that covers the labeled indication for ANNOVERA, making it the only long-lasting, patient-controlled, procedure-free, reversible prescription contraceptive option for women.

Unfortunately, the patent bounce didn’t last long. The stock was back down below $1.50 again by mid-May before making a run back up to as high as $2.43 in July. This time, one of the key catalysts was an announcement that Nurx, the largest online practice for women’s health, would be greatly expanding access to ANNOVERA to its 300,000 nationwide patients.

Once again, the rally didn’t last long. In November, TherapeuticsMD reported a third-quarter net loss of $32.6 million and announced a $30 million public offering. In December, TherapeuticsMD shares dropped down to as low as $1.15.

TherapeuticsMD In 2021, Beyond: In early 2021, TherapeuticsMD found a new catalyst in its large short position. In January and February, Reddit's WallStreetBets community began drawing attention to the potential for large short squeezes in heavily shorted stocks. At the time, TherapeuticsMD’s short interest was above 18% of its float. A short squeeze sent TherapeuticsMD shares to a post-pandemic high of $2.75 in February 2021.

After the short squeeze, the bottom fell out of the stock. TherapeuticsMD dropped below its 2020 lows in August after the company reported a second-quarter net loss of $42.6 million.

The stock has yet to find a bottom, dropping as low as 68 cents just this week.

TherapeuticsMD investors who bought one year ago and held on through the volatility have generated a terrible return on their investment. In fact, $1,000 in TherapeuticsMD stock bought on Sept. 16, 2020, would be worth about $525 today.

Looking ahead, analysts are still very optimistic TherapeuticsMD has a bright future. The average price target among the four analysts covering the stock is $5, suggesting 611.7% upside from current levels.

Photo: Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash