Wednesday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Small stocks shot up Wednesday to fly high above the sprightly broad market as names like Kellwood (KWD) surged.

Shares were up 26% to $19.11 after private-investment firm Sun Capital offered to buy out the St. Louis outdoor-apparel maker for $21 a share in cash -- a 38.4% premium to Kellwood's Tuesday closing price.

Dress Barn (DBRN), a women's-apparel retailer, said fiscal fourth-quarter income soared 37.1% year over year to 48 cents a share, or $33.6 million, as same-store sales gained 5% and total revenue climbed 10.7% to $379.9 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were seeking 42 cents a share on $376.9 million in sales. In addition, the Suffern, N.Y., company pegged its fiscal 2008 profit above consensus.

Dress Barn shares traded 2.9% higher, which, along with Kellwood's gains, lent support to both the Russell 2000 and the S&P SmallCap 600. The trackers lately jumped 1% and 0.9% repectively.

Leaping on upgrades, meanwhile, were fellow members of both trackers -- Robbins & Myers (RBN), which makes systems for the pharmaceutical, energy and industrial markets, and Plexus (PLXS), a purveyor of electronic-product-realization services.

Robert W. Baird bumped up Robbins' rating to outperform from neutral, boosting shares by 12% to $58.20, and J.P. Morgan said Plexus will see accelerating revenue growth as it reaps benefit from recently inked contracts. He upped the stock to overweight. Shares climbed 6.6% to $25.37.