24/7 Wall St. » STRL

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (GE, JNPR, VOD, CVX, APC, ES, FXCM, GSL, MCS, ANAC, HMNY, ECYT, SCLN, PSUN, GWRE, PATH, FSS, STRL)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:08:03 +0000

Stocks opened modestly higher this morning and have wiggled around the neutral line all day. No significant news came out that would have influenced market action much one way or another. The dollar index gathered strength all day, though, and is up 0.47% to 80.567. The stronger dollar pushed down commodities prices, with crude oil closing lower for the first time in about a month. WTI crude closed down -1.2% at $105.43/barrel and Brent crude is trading down -0.86% at $125.14/barrel. Gold settled at $1,642.90/ounce, down 3%, in the yellow metal’s worst showing in two months.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 16 points to 13,194.10(0.12%), the NASDAQ rose less than 1 point (0.03%) to 3,040.73, and the S&P 500 fell -0.12% or about 2 points to 1,394.28.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) maintained as ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse; Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) cut to ‘market perform’ at BMO; Vodafone Group plc (NASDAQ: VOD) cut to ‘underperform’ at BNP Paribus; Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) maintained as ‘outperform’ but estimates lowered at Credit Suisse; and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) raised to ‘buy’ at Stifel Nicolaus.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Energy Solutions Inc. (NYSE: ES) is up 2% at $4.54; FXCM Inc. (NYSE: FXCM) is up 10% at $11.55; Global Ship Lease Inc. (NYSE: GSL) is down -7.3% at $3.18; Marcus Corp. (NYSE: MCS) is down -1.5% at $12.31; and Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANAC) is up 2.5% at $5.73.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Helios & Matheson Information Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: HMNY) is up more than 87% at $5.33 after posting a new 52-week high of $7.00 earlier today. The business software company posted a surprise profit for fiscal 2011.

Endocyte Inc. (NASDAQ: ECYT) is up nearly 58% at $5.87. The drug maker posted better-than-expected quarterly and annual results last night.

SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SCLN) is up about 22% at $6.39 after posting a new 52-week high of $6.97 earlier. The biopharmaceutical company beat estimates and provided a strong outlook for 2012.

Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. (NASDAQ: PSUN) is down nearly -18% at $2.06. The apparel maker posted a larger than expected loss last night. More coverage here.

Guidewire Software Inc. (NYSE: GWRE) is up more than 17% at $30.09 after posting a new 52-week high of $32.79 earlier today. The business software company announced a new contract this morning.

NuPathe Inc. (NASDAQ: PATH) is up nearly 20% at $3.91. The biotechnology company’s transdermal patch for migraine sufferers got a strong review from a financial web site today.

Federal Signal Corp. (NYSE: FSS) is up more than 22% at $5.61. The specialty truck maker posted better-than-expected revenues this morning.

Sterling Construction Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: STRL) is down more than -16% at $8.58 after posting a new 52-week low of $8.57 earlier today. The construction firm posted an unexpectedly weak earnings report this morning.

Stay tuned for Thursday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – New US unemployment benefits claims
8:30 a.m. – Producer price index
8:30 a.m. – Empire State manufacturing index
9:00 a.m. – Treasury International Capital (TIC) report
10:00 a.m. – Philadelphia Fed survey
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Market Close, Market Roundups Tagged: ANAC, APC, CVX, ECYT, ES, FSS, FXCM, GE, GSL, GWRE, HMNY, JNPR, MCS, PATH, PSUN, SCLN, STRL, VOD

Mid-day Movers (GWRE, PATH, FSS, APP, STRL)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:31:46 +0000

Shortly after noon ET today, the three major US stock indexes have reversed course from their higher openings. The DJIA up more than 15 points at around13,193, the Nasdaq down less than 1 point at 3,040, and the S&P 500 down about 1.5 points to around 1,395. Trading has not find anything to drive it either higher or lower yet today, so the indexes just muddle along. The dollar is higher today, with the dollar index up 0.44% at 80.548. Crude prices are also lower following the EIA weekly status report (more coverage here), with Brent down -0.37% and WTI down -0.78%.

Among the major movers at around noon today are Guidewire Software Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), NuPathe Inc. (NASDAQ: PATH), Federal Signal Corp. (NYSE: FSS), American Apparel Inc. (AMEX: APP), and Sterling Construction Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: STRL).

Guidewire Software is up nearly 17% at $29.97 after posting a new 52-week high of $32.79 earlier today. Volume is already above the daily average of about 400,000 shares traded. The business software company announced a new contract this morning.

NuPathe is up more than 15% at $3.77. Volume is already nearly double the daily average of about 36,000 shares traded. The biotechnology company’s transdermal patch for migraine sufferers got a strong review from a financial web site today.

Federal Signal is up nearly 15% at $5.26. Volume is already more than double the daily average of around 335,000 shares traded. The specialty truck maker posted better-than-expected revenues this morning.

American Apparel is down nearly -14% at $0.88. Volume is already more than 11x the daily average of around 52,000 shares traded. The clothing maker reported weak earnings and revenues this morning.

Sterling Construction is down more than -13% at $8.92 after posting a new 52-week low of $8.88 earlier today. Volume is already nearly 20x the daily average of around 73,000 shares traded. The construction firm posted an unexpectedly weak earnings report this morning.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Market Roundups Tagged: APP, FSS, GWRE, PATH, STRL

Margin Calls Hit Execs Left & Right (AIV, BSX, CPE, CHK, DNR, LTM, PROV, PHM, SPA, STRL, WSM)

247wallst — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:06:55 +0000

There are many C-Suite executive from Wall Street to main Street that didn’t exactly get their stock priorities right. Many company executives are getting margin calls and are being forced to liquidate their stocks. Some are for stocks in their own company, some are for stocks and general, and some are just forced to sell to meet margin calls for entirely different reasons unrelated to their companies. below is a partial list of margin call victims from this week:

Apartment Investment and Management Co. (NYSE: AIV) Executive VicePresident David Robertson sold another 14,800 company shares early thisweek after the company stock had dropped some 7).

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) co-founder and Chairman Peter M.Nicholas was forced to sell over $29 million worth of BSX shares, butdon’t feel too bad for him. He’s got plenty more.

Callon Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: CPE) chairman and CEO Fred Callon unloaded110,000 company shares at an average price of $7.84 to meet margincalls.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) CEO Aubrey McLendon has alreadybeen wiped out of essentially all of his shares worth more than 41billion back at the peak. The sad part is his forced selling may havebeen right at the lows.

Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE: DNR) CEO Garteth Roberts had 513,000shares sold in involuntary margin calls. Interestingly enough, thiswas to meet a real estate loan rather than any stock event.

Life Time Fitness Inc (NYSE: LTM) Chairman & CEO Bahram Akradi wasforced to sell roughly $5.6 million in involunarty stock sales sales tocover margin calls.

Provident Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PROV) senior VP Richard Galesold 5,000 shares of company stock at an average of $5.76 to meet amargin call. CEO & President Craig Blunden disclosed early thisweek that he had to unload 11,929 shares of stock the prior week tomeet margin calls.

Pulte Homes Inc. (NYSE: PHM) chairman and founder William J. Pulte soldsome 760,000 Pulte shares to meet margin calls. These were apparentlyrelated to loan agreements that involved family members
and a charitable organization. And who said charity was so great….

Sparton Corp. (NYSE: SPA) Chairman Bradley Smith dumped 12,000 sharesof company stock to meet a margin call. This sale only netted about$22,000.00, but he has had to unload over $500,000.00 so far.

Sterling Construction Co. (NASDAQ: STRL) Chief Executive PatrickManning sold an additional 3,594 shares over margin calls, and it lookslike this brings his tally to more than $750,000.00 in margin callsales. A builder, in Houston….

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NASDAQ: WSM) Chairman & CEO W.Howard Lester has now sold roughly 2.15 million shares to cover margincalls after a last filing this week showed that he sold 1.15 millionshares. Sadly enough, he nearly sold at the 52-week low.

Jon C. Ogg
October 31, 2008

Posted in Insider Activity Tagged: AIV, BSX, CHK, CPE, DNR, LTM, PHM, PROV, SPA, STRL, WSM