Wednesday's Winners & Losers: OptionsXpress
Shares of
Casey's General Stores
(CASY) - Get Caseys General Stores Inc. Report
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 Energy Transfer LP 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 Charles Schwab Corporation (The) Report
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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 Teleflex Incorporated 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 Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Report
, up 86 cents to $25.25;
Pfizer
(PFE) - Get Pfizer Inc. Report
, up 11 cents to $23.15;
EMC
(EMC)
, up 25 cents to $11.95;
Ford
(F) - Get Ford Motor Company Report
, down 9 cents to $6.59;
Citigroup
(C) - Get Citigroup Inc. Report
, down 59 cents to $47.62;
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Bank of America Corporation Report
, down 78 cents to $46.29;
General Electric
(GE) - Get General Electric Company Report
, up 7 cents to $33.80; and
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Exxon Mobil Corporation Report
, up 59 cents to $57.24.
Nasdaq volume leaders included
Intel
(INTC) - Get Intel Corporation Report
, up 57 cents to $17.69;
JDSU
(JDSU)
, up 2 cents to $2.35;
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Microsoft Corporation Report
, up 19 cents to $21.70;
Sun Microsystems
(SUNW) - Get Sunworks Inc. Report
, up 12 cents to $4.30;
Ciena
(CIEN) - Get Ciena Corporation Report
, up 27 cents to $4.06;
Level 3 Communications
(LVLT)
, up 11 cents to $4.21;
Apple Computer
(AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. Report
, down 83 cents to $57.50;
Cisco Systems
(CSCO) - Get Cisco Systems Inc. Report
, up 26 cents to $19.62;
Applied Materials
(AMAT) - Get Applied Materials Inc. Report
, up 13 cents to $16.27;
Sirius Satellite Radio
(SIRI) - Get Sirius XM Holdings Inc. Report
, up 3 cents to $4.12; and
Symantec
(SYMC) - Get Symantec Corporation Report
, down 41 cents to $15.21.
