Thursday's Winners & Losers: Netgear

Comcast(CMCSA Quote) added $1.43, or 8%, to $19.24 after it offered to lower the pay of its executives, announced a 25-cent annual dividend after an 8-year haitus, and said it would keep capital spending in check.

The company spent $6 billion in capital expenditure last year, or 20% of total revenue. In 2008, it plans to spend about $6.06 billion, or 18% of its sales, on capital expenditures. Comcast also said it will stay firm on its $6.9 billion share-buyback plan announced earlier.

In earnings, Swiss bank UBS (UBS Quote) confirmed that it took a continuing-operations loss in the fourth-quarter, as it had warned it would last month. The actual shortfall, which reverses a year-ago profit, came to around $11.34 billion (12.45 billion Swiss francs) -- a hair better than UBS's January estimate of $11.38 billion, based on recent conversion rates. Deutsche Bank downgraded UBS to hold from buy. Shares slid 7.1% to $34.35 on the NYSE.

Shares of Netgear(NTGR Quote) were down $5.28, or 19.7%, to $21.59, hitting a new 52-week low after the company disappointed investors with its earnings report.

Netgear reported adjusted earnings of 41 cents a share in the fourth quarter, lower than analysts' estimates of 45 cents a share. The company forecast revenue for the current quarter in the range of $201 million to $205 million, lower than Street estimates of $207.4 million.

Shareholders untied The Knot (KNOT Quote), sending the New York wedding-related Internet company down 16.1% to $11.66. Wednesday after the close, the company announced fourth-quarter income of $2.6 million, or 8 cents a share, vs. $14.6 million, or 45 cents a share, in 2006. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for 7 cents a share. This morning, however, JPMorgan downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight.

Denny's (DENN Quote) shares also fell hard, down 15.4% to $3.03 after the Spartanburg, S.C.-based restaurant operator posted adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of $3.4 million, vs. $7.3 million, a year ago. Analysts were looking for $6.6 million. For 2008, the company forecast restaurant sales declines and a same-store sales loss of up to 2%.

Elsewhere, Regions Financial (RF Quote) announced that chief financial officer Al Yother will retire effective April 1, to be replaced by former Wachovia (WB Quote) executive Irene Esteves. Shares were off 57 cents, or 2.4%, to $23.02.