Unusual 11 Mid-Day Movers 5/5: DSCO, VNDA, STEC, AYR Higher; HMSY, ZOLT, CFC, YHOO Lower

May 5, 2008 12:32 PM EDT

Discovery Laboratories, Inc. (Nasdaq: DSCO) 31.7% HIGHER; this morning announced that it has received an Approvable Letter from the U.S. FDA for Surfaxin. Discovery Labs believes that this letter reflects material progress towards getting FDA approval for the drug.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VNDA) 24% HIGHER; shares of Vanda continue to see upward momentum after gaining about 16% on Friday due to better than expected Q1 earnings.

HMS Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq: HMSY) 23.6% LOWER; reports Q1 EPS of $0.12, 1 cent lower than the analyst estimate of $0.13. Revenues for the quarter were $38.9 million, versus the consensus of $37.61 million.

STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq: STEC) 17.7% HIGHER; reports Q1 EPS of $0.07, 4 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.03. Revenues for the quarter were $50.7 million, versus the consensus of $46.14 million.

Aircastle (NYSE: AYR) 16.5% HIGHER; announced that two subsidiaries have entered into a credit agreement with Calyon New York Branch as Sole Bookrunner, and with Calyon New York Branch, HSH Nordbank AG, New York Branch, KfW Ipex-Bank GmbH and DVB Bank AG acting as Joint Lead Arrangers. The Borrowers will acquire 28 aircraft from other subsidiaries of Aircastle using, in part, the proceeds of the $786.1 million in loans to the Borrowers under the ACS 2008-1 Credit Agreement. The Sellers will use the proceeds of the sale of the Aircraft to the Borrowers to repay funds outstanding under existing Aircastle credit facilities.

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MoneyGram (NYSE: MGI) 15.8% HIGHER; upgraded at Calyon Securities from Neutral to Buy. Price target $3. Shares of MoneyGram are seeing heavy volume today: the stock has traded nearly 3 million shares just after 12 PM ET, compared to its average daily volume of 1.54 million.

Zoltek Companies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZOLT) 15.9% LOWER; shares were halted this morning before the market opened. The company announced that CFO, Kevin J. Schott, resigned and its Audit Committee has determined that its previously issued financial statements as of September 30, 2007 and for the fiscal then year ended and as of December 31, 2007 and for the quarter then ended should no longer be relied upon. The company recently became aware of errors in those financial statements resulting from a payment aggregating $175,000 by a subsidiary of the company in September 2007 that was not properly authorized or reported in the company's financial records. Zoltek also identified a similar payment of $75,000 in January 2008.

Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) 14.6% LOWER; Friedman Billings downgrades Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) from Market Perform to Underperform, citing Bank of America's amendment filing. Price target dropped from $7 to $2. Sees lower bid.

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) 13.8% LOWER; Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) withdraws proposal to acquire Yahoo!. Numerous analyst firms are out with downgrades on Yahoo! stock: Citi moved to Sell, ThinkPanmure moved to Sell, Soleil moved to Sell and Jackson Securities also moved to a Sell.

Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) 13.3% HIGHER; reports Q1 EPS of $0.52, 3 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.49. Revenues for the quarter were $227.7 million, versus the consensus of $217.53 million.

Tidewater (NYSE: TDW) 11% LOWER; reports Q4 earnings of $1.63 per share, below the consensus of $1.72. Revenues came in at $331.4 million, versus the consensus of $321.9 million.

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Related Entities

• Citi
• Calyon Securities
• Soleil Securities
• Banc of America
• Friedman, Billings, Ramsey
• Scopia Capital

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