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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Briefs: Ceres, Public Storage

Energy crop developer Ceres Inc. reported a loss and big drop in revenue in its fiscal second quarter on Thursday as the company saw a reduction in research and grant dollars. The Thousand Oaks company reported a net loss of $7.2 million (-29 cents a share) for the quarter ended Feb. 28, compared to a loss of $9 million (-36 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 50 percent to $500,000. Analysts on average expected a net loss of 30 cents a share on revenue of $600,000, according to Thomson Financial Network. The company said the decline in revenue was primarily due to a decrease in collaborative research and government grant revenue. The company is developing genetically modified sweet sorghum seeds to harvest ethanol by contracted mills in Brazil. Ceres, which laid off a fifth of its employees in the fall, has yet to report a profit since going public in February 2012. Shares closed down a penny to 73 cents on the Nasdaq. Public Storage Inc. has announced the offering of an additional 2 million preferred shares. The Glendale real estate investment trust announced the offering on Wednesday as an add-on to one last month. Combined with the previous offering, the company expects to sell a total of 11.4 million depositary shares for gross proceeds of about $285 million. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Jefferies LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, UBS Securities LLC and Wells Fargo Securities LLC acted as joint book-running managers of the offering. Shares closed down 74 cents, or a fraction of a percent, to $169.39 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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