Friday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers
08/31/07 - 03:23 PM EDT
Sarina Penn
Small-cap stocks were rising in concert with the rest of the market Friday, even amid disappointing news out of the retail sector.
SkillSoft (SKIL Quote - Cramer on SKIL - Stock Picks) was among the winners, climbing 13.5% to $8.89 after more than doubling its fiscal second-quarter income to 11 cents a share, or $12.4 million, vs. the same period a year ago. The Nashua, N.H., educational-software company also reported 28.4% higher revenue at $71.5 million to top the $68.3 million mean estimate from Thomson Financial. Esterline Technologies (ESL Quote - Cramer on ESL - Stock Picks), which makes products and systems for the aerospace and defense markets, also beat on sales for the fiscal third quarter and catapulted its bottom line to $38.8 million, or $1.49 a share. Last year the Bellevue, Wash., company earned $11.2 million, or 43 cents a share. Its stock traded up $1.14, or 2.3%, to $50.99. That helped to support the Russell 2000, which gained 1.2% at around 793. The S&P SmallCap 600 performed similarly. Elsewhere, California's Catalyst Semiconductor (CATS Quote - Cramer on CATS - Stock Picks) jumped 9% to $5.35 on an upgrade to buy at CE Unterberg Towbin. BB&T Capital Markets raised crafts retailer Jo-Ann Stores (JAS Quote - Cramer on JAS - Stock Picks) to hold from underweight a day after its shares tumbled on a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss. Shares of the Hudson, Ohio, outfit rose 4.9% to $22.73 in partial recovery.
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