Tuesday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:05 p.m. EDT with new stock prices

Small-cap stocks bounced back from an early start to the downside Tuesday, reaching the baseline as the broader market continued to languish in the red.

Shares of weight management and fitness program provider NutriSystem (NTRI) jumped 24.4% to $18.59. The Horsham, Pa.-based company announced that president and COO Joseph Redling will replace CEO Michael Hagan effective May 1. Hagan will continue to serve as nonexecutive chairman. NutriSystem also forecast first-quarter revenue of about $216 million, ahead of the Thomson Financial consensus estimate of $203.5 million. Boenning & Scattergood upgraded the stock to market perform from market underperform.

Meanwhile, Layne Christensen (LAYN), a Mission Woods, Kan.-based drilling and construction services company, climbed 21.9% to $43.98. For the fourth quarter, Layne increased income 44% to $9.6 million, or 50 cents a share. The Street was looking for EPS of 37 cents. Revenue rose 16% to $223.6 million, ahead of the consensus estimate of $214.5 million.

Provider of disk sputtering equipment for hard disk drives Intevac (IVAC) was upgraded to buy from hold by Brean Murray. Shares tacked on 11.4% to $15.07.

On the losing side, Agria (GRO), a Beijing seller of upstream agricultural products for China, announced this morning that business was not disrupted by the resignation of COO Zhixin (Frank) Xue. The resignation was announced yesterday after the close. Shareholders remained skeptical, selling the company down 39.9% to $5.29.

Shares of Boise (BZ), an Idaho maker of paper products, fell 12% to $5.65. Boise announced Monday evening that its input costs were rapidly increasing, especially in its mills in the Pacific Northwest.

More broadly, the Russell 2000 was off 0.1% at 711.67, and the S&P SmallCap 600 lost 0.2% to 376.65.

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