ICO Acquisition Spurs Heavy Volume

HOUSTON (TheStreet) -- ICO (ICOC) shares jumped Thursday on above-average volume after A. Schulman (SHLM) agreed to buy the company in a $191.4 million transaction.

A. Schulman, which supplies high-performance plastic compounds and resins to consumers and automotive markets, will pay $105 million in cash and 5.1 million shares of common stock for all outstanding shares of ICO.

Shareholders of ICO, which produces custom polymer powders, will receive $6.79 a share, a 51% premium to the stock's closing price Wednesday.

ICO shares were jumping by $2.11, or 46.9%, to $6.61. Earlier in the session, the stock touched an intraday and new 52-week high of $6.67. More than 820,000 shares changed hands by 10 a.m. EST Thursday, compared to the stock's 50-day average daily volume of 100,000, according to the Nasdaq.

ICO has a 24.1 million-share float with a short interest float of 1.8% as of Nov. 13, according to Yahoo! Finance. Insiders hold only 5.6% of the company's shares, with another 51.3% owned by institutions.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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