Thursday's Winners & Losers: New Century Financial

Shares of New Century Financial(NEW Quote) were among the NYSE's losers Thursday, plummeting 28% after the subprime lender warned of a fourth-quarter loss.

The news surprised Wall Street, which expected the company to post a profit of $1.06 a share, according to analysts polled by Thomson First Call. "The increasing industry trend of early-payment defaults and, consequently, loan repurchases intensified in the fourth quarter of 2006," the company said. "The company continued to observe this increased trend in its early-payment default experience in the fourth quarter, and the volume of repurchased loans and repurchase claims remain high."

New Century also said that it expects to record a fair value adjustment to its residual interests, reflecting revised prepayments, loan and discount rate assumptions. The company added that it plans to restate earnings for the first three quarters of 2006. "Specifically, the company did not include the expected discount upon disposition of loans when estimating allowance for loan repurchase losses," New Century said. The restatements will reduce earnings in each of the first three quarters. Shares were recently trading down $8.51 to $21.65.

Nautilus(NLS Quote) jumped 11% after the maker of fitness equipment posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The company earned $12.9 million, or 41 cents a share, on revenue of $199.3 million. Analysts expected earnings of 38 cents a share on revenue of $199 million. During the year-earlier period, the company earned $2 million, or 6 cents a share, on revenue of $182 million.