Lincoln National, Hartford Rally; Ryder Plunges

123jump.com Staff
08 Apr, 2009
New York City

Life insurance rallied in trading after media report suggested that companies may have access to cheap financing from the U.S. Treasury. Merger between two home builders lifted Centex. Bed Bath & Beyond and Family Dollar rallied on earnings. Ryder plunged on lowered earnings.

[R]1:30PM New York – Life insurance rallied in trading after media report suggested that companies may have access to cheap financing from the U.S. Treasury. Merger between two home builders lifted Centex.[/R]

Life insurance companies surged in trading this morning after the Wall Street Journal reported that the companies will be given funds from the U.S. Treasury program. The leading insurers are battling write down of assets as values of their holdings have collapsed in the last eighteen months.

Index Movers

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 407 increased, 92 declined and 1 was unchanged.

Ryder Systems led decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 16.3% followed by losses in Manitowoc Company of 12.2%, in Pulte Homes Inc of 9.7%, in KeyCorp of 9.3%, in Comercia Inc of 8.8% and in SunTrust Banks of 5.9%.

Lincoln National Corp ((LNC)) led gainers in the S&P 500 index with a surge of 34% followed by rise in Bed Bath & Beyond of 22%, in Principal Financial of 21.7%, in Hartford Financial of 21%, in Juniper Networks of 14.5% and in Genworth Financial of 14%.

Other Movers

Met Life, Inc ((MET)) rose 2.6% to $24.79, Hartford Financial Services ((HIG)) surged 19% or $1.59 to $10.04, Prudential Financial, Inc added 6.5% or $1.42 to $23.54 and Lincoln National soared 35% or $2.38 to $9.27.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc ((BBBY)) soared 21% or $5.46 to $30.97 after it reported for the fiscal fourth quarter earnings of 55 cents a share or $141.4 million or 66 cents a share or $172.9 million. Net sales declined 0.5% from a year ago quarter to $1.933 billion. Net sales for the fiscal 2008 increased 2.3% to $7.21 billion but comparable sales in the year declined 2.4% from a year ago.

Family Dollar Stores, Inc ((FDO)) increased 7% or $2.25 to $34.91 after it reported second quarter net income increase of 33% to 60 cents a share or $84.1 million from 45 cents a share or $63.3 million. Sales in the quarter increased 8.7% to $1.992 billion on a comparable same store sales increase of 6.4%.

Pulte Homes ((PHM)) declined 8.5% or 92 cents to $9.85 and Centex ((CTX)) surged 22% or $1.73 to $9.35.

Pulte Homes and Centex, two of the nation’s largest home builders agreed to merge. Centex surges 22% after the deal announcement. Under the terms of merger Centex shareholders will receive 0.975 shares of Pulte common stock. The deal is based on the Pulte stock closing price on April 7, 2009 that values Centex share at $10.50, representing 33% premium.

Ryder Systems ((R)) plunged 16.5% or $4.88 to $24.68 after it lowered its comparable and reported earnings outlook for the first quarter of this year. The company guided comparable diluted earnings per share between 22 cents a share and 24 cents a share and expects to take additional restructuring charge of 12 cents a share. The company had previously estimated earnings between 40 cents and 50 cents a share for the quarter.