Unusual 11 Mid-Day Movers 3/20: CCOW, NRGN, DITC, MFA Higher; EPIX, CIT, BGP, TMA Lower

March 20, 2008 12:33 PM EDT

Capital Corp of the West (Nasdaq: CCOW) 59.6% HIGHER; today announced that it has formed a Regulatory Oversight Committee in order to oversee all of the company's operations. In order to strengthen its capital position and develop strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, the CCOW board has retained the investment banking firm of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods as its exclusive financial advisor. Keffe Bruyette will seek to raise capital and evaluate other strategic alternatives for the company.

EPIX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: EPIX) 48.7% LOWER; is discontinuing clinical development of PRX-00023 due to lack of significant efficacy shown in the recently completed Phase 2b trial in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Neurogen Corp. (Nasdaq: NRGN) 34.9% HIGHER; is surging despite no company specific news releases today. Just after noon, shares of Neurogen have traded about 670,000 times, compared to its average daily volume of 73,000.

CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) 31% LOWER; today announced that it is drawing upon its $7.3 billion in unsecured U.S. bank credit facilities. The Company will use the proceeds to repay debt maturing in 2008, including commercial paper, and provide financing to its core commercial franchises. Over the near term, the Company will continue to actively seek additional funding sources, as well as explore and execute on the sale of non-strategic assets and/or business lines.

Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) 28.3% LOWER; reports Q4 earnings of $1.44 per share, ex-items, above the consensus of $1.42. Revenues came in at $1.35 billion, versus the consensus of $1.34 billion. Borders Group also announced the launch of a strategic alternative review process. J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. have been retained as the company's financial advisors to assist the company as it explores strategic alternatives. In addition, the company today announced that Borders Group has received a financing commitment from Pershing Square Capital.

Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) 27.3% LOWER; continues to decline today after it announced a 1-year reverse repurchase program for up to $1 billion in convertible notes yesterday.

Quixote Corp. (Nasdaq: QUIX) 24.4% LOWER; reported an expected Q3 loss in the range of $0.09-$0.15. The Street is currently expecting EPS of $0.08.

Ditech Networks (Nasdaq: DITC) 21% HIGHER; may be moving today as Ditech's voice quality system was chosen by Simlab.net for its VoIP users.

Oritani Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: ORIT) 18.4% HIGHER; announced today that it entered into a mutual termination agreement with Greater Community Bancorp (Nasdaq: GFLS) terminating the Agreement and Plan of Merger that the parties previously executed on November 13, 2007.

Flagstar Bancorp (NYSE: FBC) 15.5% HIGHER; after the Bear Stearns collapse that surprised Wall Street earlier this week, short interest on financial stocks jumped. Investors who went short may be covering today in order to lock in profits.

MFA Mortgage (NYSE: MFA) 15.1% HIGHER; after yesterday's sell-off, capping a 27% decline from the beginning of March, today's jump may be the result of short sellers covering their bets and buying back shares of MFA to take profits.

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Related Entities

• Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
• William Ackman
• Pershing Square Capital
• JPMorgan
• Bear Stearns
• Merrill Lynch

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