Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Stockholders' Equity

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Stockholders' Equity
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Stockholders' Equity  
Stockholders' Equity

Note 6 – Stockholders’ Equity

Common Stock

At the Company’s 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders held on June 4, 2020, its stockholders approved an amendment to its certificate of incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock available to issue by 35,000,000 to 95,000,000 with a par value of $0.0001 per share, of which 7,000,000 shares are designated as “Class A common stock.” The amendment was filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware on June 4, 2020.

As of September 30, 2020, and December 31, 2019, there were 7,000,000 shares of Class A common stock issued and outstanding to Fortress. Dividends are to be distributed pro-rata to the Class A and common stockholders. The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote per share of common stock held. The Class A common stockholders are entitled to a number of votes per share equal to 1.1 times a fraction, the numerator of which is the sum of the shares of outstanding common stock and the denominator of which is the number of shares of Class A common stock. Accordingly, the holder of shares of Class A common stock will be able to control or significantly influence all matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and the approval of mergers or other business combination transactions. Each share of Class A common stock is convertible, at the option of the holder thereof, into one (1) fully paid and non-assessable share of common stock subject to adjustment for stock splits and combinations.

In November 2017, the Company filed a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (the “S-3”), which was declared effective in December 2017. Under the S-3, the Company may sell up to a total of $100 million of its securities. In connection with the S-3, the Company entered into an At-the-Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “ATM”) with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. and H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC (each an “Agent” and collectively, the “Agents”), relating to the sale of shares of common stock. Under the ATM, the Company pays the Agents a commission rate of up to 3.0% of the gross proceeds from the sale of any shares of common stock.

In September 2020, the Company completed an underwritten public offering in which it sold 7,321,429 shares of its common stock at a price of $2.80 per share for gross proceeds of approximately $20.5 million. Total net proceeds from the offering were approximately $18.9 million, net of underwriting discounts and offering expenses of approximately $1.6 million. The shares were sold under the S-3.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2020, the Company sold a total of 3,614,344 shares of common stock under an At-the-Market Issuance Sales Agreement for aggregate total gross proceeds of approximately $8.7 million at an average selling price of $2.40 per share, resulting in net proceeds of approximately $8.4 million after deducting commissions and other transaction costs.

Pursuant to the Founders Agreement, the Company issued to Fortress 2.5% of the aggregate number of shares of common stock issued in the offering noted above. Accordingly, the Company issued 273,379 shares of common stock to Fortress and recorded expense of approximately $797,000 related to these stock grants, which is included in general and administrative expenses in the Company’s Condensed Statements of Operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2020.

Pursuant to the Founders Agreement, the Company issued 1,459,305 shares of common stock to Fortress on June 4, 2020 for the Annual Equity Fee, representing 2.5% of the fully-diluted outstanding equity of Checkpoint on January 1, 2020.  The Company did not have enough unreserved authorized shares under its Certificate of Incorporation on January 1, 2020 to issue the shares for the Annual Equity Fee, therefore, in December 2019, Fortress and Checkpoint mutually agreed to defer the issuance until such time as the Checkpoint Charter has been amended in order to increase the number of authorized shares that may be issued thereunder.

The S-3 is currently the Company’s only active shelf registration statement. Subsequent to the offerings noted above, approximately $12.3 million of securities remain available for sale under the S-3. The Company may offer the securities under the S-3 from time to time in response to market conditions or other circumstances if it believes such a plan of financing is in the best interests of its stockholders. The Company believes that the S-3 provides it with the flexibility to raise additional capital to finance its operations as needed.

Equity Incentive Plan

The Company has in effect the Amended and Restated 2015 Incentive Plan (“2015 Incentive Plan”). The 2015 Incentive Plan was adopted in March 2015 by our stockholders. Under the 2015 Incentive Plan, the compensation committee of the Company’s board of directors is authorized to grant stock-based awards to directors, officers, employees and consultants. An amendment to the 2015 Incentive Plan was approved by stockholders in June 2020 to increase the shares available for issuance to 9,000,000 shares. The plan expires 10 years from the effective date of the amendment and limits the term of each option to no more than 10 years from the date of grant.

As of September 30, 2020, 4,298,465 shares are available for issuance under the 2015 Incentive Plan.

Restricted Stock

Certain employees, directors and consultants have been awarded restricted stock. The restricted stock vesting consists of milestone and time-based vesting. The following table summarizes restricted stock award activity for the nine months ended September 30, 2020:

Weighted Average 

Number of

Grant Date Fair

    

Shares

    

Value  

Non-vested at December 31, 2019

3,303,839

$

4.29

Granted

1,107,340

2.39

Vested

(397,980)

4.31

Non-vested at September 30, 2020

4,013,199

$

3.77

As of September 30, 2020, there was $3.5 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested restricted stock, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 2.0 years. This amount does not include, as of September 30, 2020, 333,334 shares of restricted stock outstanding which are performance-based and vest upon achievement of certain corporate milestones. The expense is recognized over the vesting period of the award. Stock-based compensation for milestone awards will be measured and recorded if and when it is probable that the milestone will be achieved.

Stock Options

The following table summarizes stock option award activity for the nine months ended September 30, 2020:

Weighted Average 

Remaining

Weighted Average 

 Contractual Life

    

Stock Options 

    

Exercise Price

    

(in years)

Outstanding as of December 31, 2019

160,000

$

3.64

8.56

Granted

60,000

2.04

Outstanding as of September 30, 2020

220,000

$

3.20

8.29

Upon the exercise of stock options, the Company will issue new shares of its common stock. As of September 30, 2020, no outstanding stock options were vested and exercisable.

Warrants

A summary of warrant activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 is presented below:

Weighted Average 

Remaining

Weighted Average 

Contractual Life

    

Warrants 

    

Exercise Price 

    

(in years)

Outstanding as of December 31, 2019

4,207,447

$

6.81

1.25

Exercised

(102,742)

0.13

Expired

(880,250)

7.00

Outstanding as of September 30, 2020

3,224,455

$

6.97

0.19

Upon the exercise of warrants, the Company will issue new shares of its common stock. During the nine months ended September 30, 2020, the Company issued 102,742 common shares and received $13,000.

Stock-Based Compensation

The following table summarizes stock-based compensation expense for the three and nine  months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019 ($ in thousands):

For the three months ended September 30, 

For the nine months ended September 30, 

    

2020

    

2019

    

2020

    

2019

Research and development

$

157

$

179

$

462

$

559

General and administrative

 

568

654

 

1,633

1,885

Total stock-based compensation expense

$

725

$

833

$

2,095

$

2,444