Today's Financial Stock Winners and Losers

Genworth ticks lower.

Author:: Rob Lenihan
Publish date:: Feb 27, 2006 3:55 PM EST

Genworth Financial

ticked lower after the insurance company said

General Electric

will soon no longer hold a stake in the company. GE plans to sell around 71 million shares of Genworth's Class A stock. Genworth, which was spun off from GE, won't receive any proceeds from the transaction.

Additionally, Genworth will repurchase 15 million Class B shares directly from GE at the net price per share that GE receives in the Class A offering. Shares of Genworth were down 9 cents, or 0.3%, to $32.55.

Merrill Lynch

(MER)

was rising after the company said it might buy back as much as $6 billion of its stock. The repurchase, based on Friday's close, would retire 8.5% of its 916 million shares outstanding, if fully exercised. Shares of Merrill were up $1.32, or 1.7%, to $78.08.

Credit Suisse initiated coverage of

UnumProvident

(UNM) - Get Report

with an underperform rating and an $18 price target. The firm said it doesn't expect a meaningful earnings recovery over the next year at UnumProvident. Still, the company's shares overcame the opinion and rose 5 cents, or 0.2%, to $21.11.