Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Stockholders' Equity

v3.22.1
Stockholders' Equity
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2022
Equity [Abstract]  
Stockholders' Equity Stockholders’ Equity
The Company had 300,000,000 shares authorized and 74,097,918 and 72,222,661 shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively, with a par value of $0.001 per share.
The Company had 10,000,000 shares authorized and 15,617 shares of preferred stock issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021. Preferred stock has a par value of $0.001 per share, and consists of the following:
Series A Convertible, 85 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively.
Series B Convertible, 4,026 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively.
Series C Convertible, 3,506 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively.
Series D Convertible, 3,000 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively.
Series E Convertible, 5,000 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively.
2020 Employee, Director and Consultant Equity Incentive Plan

At the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, the Company's stockholders approved the 2020 Employee, Director and Consultant Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2020 Plan. The 2020 Plan permits the Company to issue up to 3,500,000 shares of common stock pursuant to awards granted under the 2020 Plan. Upon approval of the 2020 Plan, the 2019 Employee, Director and Consultant Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2019 Plan, was terminated; all unissued options were canceled and no additional awards will be made thereunder. All outstanding awards under the 2019 Plan will remain in effect and any awards forfeited from the outstanding awards will be allocated back into the 2020 Plan. There were approximately 1,579,678 shares remaining and available for grant under the 2019 Plan that terminated upon original approval of the 2020 Plan.

At the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, held on June 25, 2021, the Company’s stockholders approved the first amendment to the 2020 Plan to add 2,250,000 shares for issuance under the 2020 Plan.
Series E Preferred Stock Conversion

On May 20, 2021, the Company and certain entities affiliated with Biotechnology Value Fund, or BVF, entered into an exchange agreement pursuant to which, BVF exchanged an aggregate of 5,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock owned by BVF for an aggregate of 5,000 shares of Series E Preferred Stock. The Company designated 5,000 shares of its authorized and unissued preferred stock as Series E Preferred Stock and filed a Certificate of Designation of Series E Convertible Preferred Stock of Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or the Series E Certificate of Designation, with the Nevada Secretary of State.
Open Market Sales Agreements
In August 2021, the Company established a second ATM offering program, or the 2021 ATM Program, under the existing sales agreement with Jefferies LLC, pursuant to which the Company may offer and sell shares of its common stock from time to time, up to an aggregate amount of gross sales proceeds of $50.0 million. The 2021 ATM Program is offered under a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that was filed with and declared effective by the SEC in August 2021.
For the three months ended March 31, 2022, the Company sold 1.8 million shares for gross proceeds of $6.7 million under the 2021 ATM programs at an average stock price of $3.64.