Beamr's collaboration with Nvidia helps fuel stock's massive rally

By Tomi Kilgore

Content-adaptive video company's stock skyrockets 1,556% intraday, before paring gains

Shares of Beamr Imaging Ltd. skyrocketed on massive volume Monday, after the content-adaptive video company made an announcement that included how it was connected to chip powerhouse Nvidia Corp.

The stock (BMR) blasted as much as 1,556% higher to an intraday high of $34.94 before pulling back to close the day up 371.6%. Shares rose an additional 20% after hours. Trading volume spiked to 141.1 million shares, compared with the full-day average over the past 30 days of about 268,000 shares.

The stock was the biggest percentage gainer and most actively traded on major U.S. exchanges. It had been halted for volatility four times since the opening bell at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

The Israel-based company, which went public on Feb. 28, 2023, said it will present its "joint research" relating to automated video modernization with semiconductor maker Nvidia (NVDA) at the ACM Mile-High-Video 2024 conference in Denver that runs through Wednesday.

The company explained that currently most videos are based on a 20-year-old format, AVC/H.264. Beamr said the research presented at the ACM conference will highlight the Beamr-Nvidia collaboration with an aim at facilitating the transition to their AOMedia Video 1, or AV1, format.

"Beamr and Nvidia will describe an automated process to transfer video libraries and repositories into the emerging format," the company said. "This is done while securing video quality with an optimized bitrate and using Nvidia's hardware."

Beamer stock had closed at $2.11 on Friday, compared with the initial public offering's pricing at $4.

While it's understandable that a collaboration with Nvidia, which is the hottest stock in the S&P 500 index SPX this year after more than tripling in 2023 as both a semiconductor and artificial-intelligence play, might excite investors, keep in mind that the news is not new.

The company said in its IPO filing last year that it was collaborating with Nvidia to develop the first graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated encoding solution that allows "fast and easy deployment" combined with "superior video-compression rates."

Nvidia's stock has soared 46.5% so far in 2024, to lead the S&P 500's year-to-date gainers, after leading the S&P 500 with a 238.9% gain in 2023.

Meanwhile, BMR's stock ended 2023 at $1.45, or 60.3% below where it closed on its first day of trading. But prior to Monday's rally, it had run up 45.5% so far in 2024.

-Tomi Kilgore

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02-12-24 1825ET

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