Thursday's Winners & Losers: Durect

Handset maker Palm(PALM Quote) gained 23 cents, or 4.1%, to $5.86 following a presentation by the company's Chief Financial Officer Andrew Brown to investors at the Merrill Lynch Technology 2008 conference.

Brown said the company's Centro phone introduced about eight months ago is bringing a new demographic of customers and its performance is meeting the company's expectations. He said Palm also plans to refresh its Windows Mobile based phones this summer. And he said the company has a new platform coming out later this year and will deliver the first products based on that platform in 2009.

Clearwire(CLWR Quote) plunged $1.46, or 9%, to $14.76 after Michael Rollins, an analyst at Citigroup, downgraded the stock to sell from hold, saying the stock trades at a "substantial" premium to his fair value estimate of $13 a share. Clearwire said Wednesday it will combine with Sprint Nextel to form a $14.5 billion wireless broadband company.

Specialty pharmaceutical company Durect (DRRX Quote) shot up 73 cents, or 19.2%, to $4.53 on Thursday. Its recent quarter benefitted from better expense-revenue alignment. The company met analysts' expectations and narrowed its loss in the recent quarter to $7.8 million, or 11 cents a share, from a loss of $8.8 million, or 13 cents a share a year prior. Revenue increased 12% to $6.4 million.

Shares of Gibraltar Industries (ROCK Quote), which makes residential and commercial building products, soared 28% to $14.12. The Buffalo, N.Y., firm posted first-quarter earnings of $6.7 million, or 22 cents a share, vs. $6.2 million, or 21 cents a share, a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 14 cents a share.