The annualized dividend remains greater than the share price.
Couldn't be a clearer sign that the market has no faith at all in Sam's ability to keep Labcoin on track.
The way I see it, there are two ways for Sam to go (assuming he is legit).
1) Provide requested proof(s).. Identification, pictures etc. IMO this won't happen with all of the pitchforks flying around.
2) Increase hash rate to an appreciable level and continue paying dividends. Eventually investor confidence will support a higher share price, but in the meantime, investors are limiting exposure to risk via dividend payments received.
Personally, I'm fine with #2.
The problem is that what's really going to happen is that the hashrate isn't going to increase and dividends are going to go down.
That's what people believe, and that's why the share price will remain low, probably permanently.
Sam should provide pictures of the machines. There is zero risk to him whatsoever in doing so, and in not doing so he's triggered people starting their own investigations. This is actually much riskier to him than simply providing the proof. But as I've said, Sam is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
People might still buy in, though, if they really thought the hashrate would increase. A big portion of the market doesn't really need proof, they just want divs.
The problem people have is that Sam has shown no indications of actual competence, and he's not given any information about the future beyond vague numbers. When he's given dates for those numbers, he's missed every single one of them.
When asked if he had a second batch of chips on order, Sam deleted the question rather than answer it.
He's also indicated he "hasn't done the proper calculations", and then, even more incredibly, has made no effort since to correct that oversight. It's difficult to take him seriously as any sort of actual project manager.
Sam should be able to provide an exact schedule by this point, with dates and numbers of chips deployed, with the corresponding hashrates.
Then there's phase 2, the 65nm chips. For reasons which are very unclear, Sam felt the best move was to seriously delay deployment of faster chips by halting development. I suppose he somehow imagined he had time to spare.
The network has doubled in hashrate in the last couple of weeks. Labcoin is already not keeping up. And it has no plan for the future.
There's a reason the price is low, and there's a reason it's going to stay at the bottom.
This is all aside from questions of fraud, of course.