Wednesday's Winners & Losers: OptionsXpress

The brokerage slides amid a business slowdown and pricing pressure from Schwab.

Author:: Mark Martinez
Publish date:: Jun 14, 2006 11:56 AM EDT

Shares of

Casey's General Stores

were among the

Nasdaq's

winners Wednesday, jumping 14% after the operator of convenience stores posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

For the period ended April 30, Casey's earned $10.4 million, or 21 cents a share, on sales of $890.2 million. Earnings from continuing operations were $10.9 million, or 22 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected earnings of 14 cents a share. During the year-earlier period, the company recorded earnings from continuing operations of $7.6 million, or 15 cents a share, on sales of $726.7 million. Shares were trading up $2.86 to $23.65.

OptionsXpress

( OXPS) slumped 13% after the brokerage products and services company posted performance metrics for May and said that it has seen a recent slowdown in business. The company's daily average revenue trades reached 30,800 in May, up 91% from a year ago, but down 2% from April. The company reported ending client assets of $4.1 billion, up 68% from a year ago, but down 2% from April. "Strong trading in April carried over to the first half of May, keeping DARTs at historically high levels," the company said. "However, we have since seen a reduction in customer engagement resulting in significantly lower activity rates and new accounts."

Shares of

E*Trade

(ET) - Get Report

were also lower after the online broker posted its May performance figures. E*Trade said its DARTs fell to 178,247 from 183,259 in April. Total retail-client assets fell 5.1% from April to $184.2 billion.

Meanwhile, fellow broker

Charles Schwab

(SCHW) - Get Report

said its DARTs in May totaled 302,600, up 3% from April and 59% from May 2005. Schwab also unveiled plans to lower its pricing, possibly putting pressure on its rivals. Shares of Schwab were up 9 cents to $14.67, while OptionsXpress fell $3.42 to $22.62 and E*Trade dropped $1.11, or 5.4%, to $19.51.

Shares of

Teleflex

(TFX) - Get Report

slid 7% after the company cut its 2006 earnings guidance. The diversified manufacturer now sees earnings from continuing operations of $3.65 to $3.80 a share, down from an earlier forecast of $3.91 to $4.12 a share. Teleflex blamed the lower projection on a slower-than-expected recovery in its medical segment. Analysts project earnings of $3.96 a share. For the second quarter, the company sees earnings rising modestly on a sequential basis, but it expects the profit to be "substantially lower" on a year-over-year basis. "While we are disappointed with overall results for the second quarter, the steps we are taking should enable us to achieve a much stronger operating performance in the second half of the year," the company said. Shares were trading down $3.81 to $54.23.

Taser

(TASR)

rose 5% after the stun-gun maker's chairman bought 100,000 shares of stock at $7.62 apiece. Phillips Smith disclosed the purchase in a

Securities and Exchange Commission

filing Tuesday. The purchase brings Smith's total holdings to slightly less than 500,000 shares. Taser shares were up 39 cents to $7.86.

Shares of

VeraSun

( VSE) soared 30% on their first day of trading. The company, which produces ethanol, priced 18.25 million shares at $23 apiece, raising about $420 million. The pricing came in above the expected range of $21 to $22 a share. Of the 18.25 million shares sold, the company offered 11 million shares, while existing shareholders sold the rest. The company plans to use proceeds from the offering to fund a portion of its facility construction costs. Shares were trading up $6.90 to $29.90.

NYSE

volume leaders included

Lucent Technologies

( LU), up 1 cent to $2.31;

Advanced Micro Devices

(AMD) - Get Report

, up 86 cents to $25.25;

Pfizer

(PFE) - Get Report

, up 11 cents to $23.15;

EMC

(EMC)