Friday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Small-cap stocks kept pace with the broad indices Friday, clawing out of the red around midday to linger near the flat line, and Tween Brands (TWB Quote) was among the winners.

The New Albany, Ohio, young-girls'-apparel retailer raised its fiscal 2007 guidance to between $1.84 and $1.98 a share from the prior range of $1.80 to $1.95. It will also buy back up to $175 million of its stock, including $143.3 million worth on an accelerated basis from Bank of America. Shares jumped 8.8% to $29.96.

ICU Medical (ICUI Quote) also gained on word it will buy up to $20 million more of its shares following completion of its last stock-repurchase program for that same amount. Shares tacked on 0.9% to $37.96.

In positive analyst notes, meanwhile, Greece-based Aegean Marine Petroleum Network (ANW Quote) got a new buy rating from Jefferies along with a $42 price target. Georgia Gulf (GGC Quote), which makes vinyl-based building and home-improvement products, among other things, was upped to neutral from underperform at Credit Suisse. The analyst said its stock is now priced low enough to accurately reflect ongoing problems in the housing sector.

Shares of Aegean, a purveyor of refined marine fuel and lubricants, bounced 8.7% to $24.55. Georgia Gulf added 67 cents, or 4.8%, to $14.76.

And New Jersey-based biopharma company Palatin Technologies (PTN Quote) traded up 10.2% to 49 cents after narrowing its fiscal fourth-quarter loss to $6.1 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with $7.9 million, or 11 cents a share, a year ago.