Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:EKSO) Earnings: What We're Looking For

Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EKSO) has been an incredibly tough stock to hold over the last 30 days. Expand that to to year to date coverage, and it's been a real rollercoaster ride. On January 10, Ekso went for $4.37 a piece. By March 14, this had declined to $2.6 and shareholders were running for the door. During the subsequent two weeks, however, the company had recovered much of its lost ground, reaching March 27 highs of $4.19.At last close, Ekso traded for $2.65 – just $0.10 above its 52 week range and amounting to a market capitalization of less than $68 million.This is the sort of action that can quickly bring with it steep losses.Those that bought in at or around highs are now faced with a dilemma – bail out in anticipation of a continuation of the overarching trend from the last month or so, taking a hit but cutting losses; or stay firm in anticipation of the same sort of rollercoaster action that we saw through March, holding on for (even just a degree of) recovery.It's a tough call to make, but we're going to edge towards the latter. Why? Because the company will report earnings next week and if the subsequent business update (and conference call) brings with it any good news, it's tough to see the company going any lower than current price.Before we get into what we're looking for specifically from the call, let's kick things off with a quick introduction to the company.Ekso is a medical device company that has developed a type of exoskeleton technology that it calls Ekso GT. It's a robotic exoskeleton that (primarily) targets the aided recovery of patients that have suffered from strokes or spinal cord injury (SCI), and it's the first robotic exoskeleton to be granted clearance for rehabilitation purposes for use with stroke patients and with SCI patients that have injury at levels of T3 to C7. It's this latter clearance that accounts for the company's real selling point for investors. Why? Because these things are expensive (we're talking $100,000 a piece) and the expanded clearance allows a clinic to treat a wider patient population, thereby providing an expanded degree of justification for the initial outlay.There's also an industrial exoskeleton that the company calls Eksoworks, but for us, at least near term, the real value is in the medical application.The company generated fourth quarter 2016 revenues of $2.6 million and full year 2016 revenues of $14.2 million. For the quarter, $1.5 million derived from medical-related sales. From a full year perspective, medical sales accounted for $4.7 million of the $14.2 million reported.At the same time as the numbers hit press, Ekso reported an $11.7 million financing. While the numbers were OK, then, this announcement basically beat down any upside that might have come about on the back of the financials, and that's what brought about the early March decline.Which brings us to what we're looking for near term, from the upcoming earnings and the associated call.The offering is in the rear view, so it's now all about getting some solid sales under the belt. Management has long been saying that it's filling up its sales funnel, and while we appreciate said funnel is a drawn out one, we'd like to see some of last year's funnel entrants filter through to purchase orders – and we'd like to see them do so as part of the upcoming earnings report.If the numbers on the release support the suggestion that the system is starting to sell (and with a twelve month or thereabouts funnel, now is the time that this should start to happen), this stock should run. We'd also like to see management expand on the "working capital and general corporate purposes" net proceeds statement from the recent raise. That one's never good enough for us. Tell us that some of the cash is going towards fresh built GTs, and the rest is going to the sales team in commission for getting these systems in centers, and we'll be much more content with the raise.Earnings and call are set for May 9 (next Tuesday). We'll be there.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on EKSO, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in EKSO and have not been compensated for this article.