Stock Offerings: AdCare Health

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- AdCare Health Systems (ADK) shares dropped after the company announced a secondary offering of common stock priced at a 6% discount to its last closing price.

AdCare Health Systems said it has priced an offering of approximately 1.71 million shares of common stock at $3.50 per share, below Tuesday's closing price of $3.72. Underwriters were granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 257,143 shares to cover overallotments.

Net proceeds of approximately $5.5 million will be used for acquisition purposes, working capital and general corporate purposes, AdCare Health said.

Shares of AdCare Health were down 23 cents, or 6.2%, to $3.49, below the offering price. The stock is now down more than 11% in 2010, although it has gained more than 55% over the last 12 months.

Elsewhere, MELA Sciences (MELA) priced a public offering of 2.2 million shares of common stock at $7.50 per share. Underwriters have a 30-day option to acquire an additional 330,000 shares to cover overallotments, if any.

MELA Sciences said it expects net proceeds of approximately $17.5 million, assuming exercise of the overallotment option. TheStreet's Adam Feuerstein reports that MELA Sciences CEO Joseph Gulfo said during a Tuesday night conference call that the decision to sell stock now was made to "reduce headwinds and market uncertainty" surrounding the company's existing cash position.

Shares of MELA Sciences were sliding by 73 cents, or 8.8%, to $7.57.

StemCells (STEM) shares also traded lower after the company announced a $6 million equity financing deal. StemCells agreed to sell 7 million shares of its common stock to private-investment partnership Seaside 88 at a price of 86.5 cents per share, a 12.6% discount to Tuesday's closing price. StemCells expects to receive net proceeds from of approximately $5.7 million.

Seaside 88 has agreed to purchase an additional 5 million shares of common stock 12 weeks after the initial closing, although StemCells may elect not to sell the additional shares. Still, shares of the company were down 3.5% to 95.5 cents during Wednesday's trading session.

Energy, Inc. (EGAS) said late Tuesday it has filed for public offering of up to 2.5 millions shares of common stock. The company said it will sell up to 1.5 million shares of common stock selling shareholders may offer up to 1 million shares. Underwriters also have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 375,000 shares to cover overallotments, if any.