Winners and Losers: Harry Winston
William Hennelly
03/20/09 - 12:46 PM EDT
Shares of miner
Harry Winston Diamond(HWD Quote) rallied almost 46% to $2.74 on Friday, a day after it announced it had received a $150 million investment from
Kinross Gold(KGC Quote).
In the deal between the two Toronto-based concerns, Kinross is buying a minority 22.5% interest in the partnership that holds Harry Winston's 40% interest in the Diavik diamond mine in the Canadian Arctic, for $104.4 million. Diavik is majority owned by
Rio Tinto(RTP Quote). Kinross will take a nearly 20% stake through an equity private placement of 15.2 million shares at $3 per share for a total of $45.6 million.
Books-a-Million(BAMM Quote) shares were up 21.5% to $4.01 a day after the Birmingham, Ala., bookseller saw its profit drop 35% in its fiscal year completed Jan. 31. The company also said it would pay a 5-cents-a-share dividend, and the CEO said he saw improvement in negative sales trends.
"The fiscal year closed with an improvement in the negative sales trend we experienced in the third quarter," said Clyde B. Anderson, chairman and chief executive officer. "We remain focused on maintaining discipline in expense control, inventory management and the maintenance of a strong balance sheet ... Our continued efforts in this area have been successfully demonstrated by a $2.5 million reduction in inventory and a $12.5 million reduction in debt over the previous year."
Shares of
Consolidated Graphics(CGX Quote) were down 21.5%, or $3.26, to $11.91 as the Houston-based commercial printer slashed its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue outlook amid the "worst overall business environment" since the company''s founding in 1985.
The company now expects revenue between $240 million and $250 million in the quarter ending March 31, down from its prior forecast for a range of $255 million to $275 million. That's a 13% to 17% revenue decline from the $288 million it posted in last year's fourth quarter.
Homebuilder
Hovnanian Enterprises'(HOV Quote) shares fell 15% to $1.18 a day after
Reuters reported that the Red Bank, N.J.-based homebuilder's cash burn jeopardized the repayment of a $100 million bond due in January.
Hovnanian reported a loss of $178.4 million in the first quarter that was worse than analyst expectations.