Friday's Winners & Losers: Bristol West

Shares of Bristol West(BRW Quote) were among the NYSE's winners Friday, soaring 36% after the auto insurer agreed to be acquired by Farmers Group, a subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, for about $712 million in cash.

The deal price works out to $22.50 a share, representing a 39% premium to Bristol's closing price of $16.21 on Thursday. "Adding Bristol's non-standard auto insurance business as an additional product line in the Farmers platform is a great fit and contributes to increase our reach," Farmers said. "Their innovative product capabilities combined with Farmers distribution breadth and focus on operational excellence, will benefit the Exchanges, our customers, our agents and all Farmers stakeholders."

As part of the agreement, Bristol will be allowed to solicit other bidders until March 31. If another deal is reached, though, Bristol would have to pay Farmers a break-up fee of $14 million. If Bristol accepts another deal after March 31, it would have to pay Farmers a break-up fee of $21 million. Shares of Bristol were recently trading up $5.81 to $22.02.

Gap(GPS Quote) fell 3% after the retailer posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results but issued 2007 earnings guidance that fell below expectations. The company earned $219 million, or 27 cents a share, on revenue of $4.93 billion. Analysts expected earnings of 24 cents a share on revenue of $4.87 billion. During the year-earlier period, the company earned $337 million, or 39 cents a share, on revenue of $4.82 billion.

Looking ahead, Gap sees 2007 adjusted earnings of 80 cents to 90 cents a share. Analysts project earnings of $1 a share. Shares were trading down 65 cents to $18.38.