Stock Price

Q: When a company is acquired by another, does its stock price always go up? - K.G., Dalton, Ga.   A: It depends. If the firm's market value is around $10 billion and it's bought for $15 billion, the stock price may jump on the news. When a company is very desirable, perhaps due to its products or growth prospects, a buyer may have to outbid other interested companies. But if it's struggling, it might get scooped up for a song, when its price is depressed. Meanwhile, if investors think that the acquiring company has struck a good deal, the price of its own stock might also rise.

After yet another day of heavy trading, Today's Man stock closed yesterday at $3.34 a share - its highest price in six months. "I've never understood why it's happening, but I'm happy it's happening," said Frank Johnson, treasurer of the men's retailer, headquartered in Moorestown. "I don't know of any reason for it. " For most of the late summer and fall, Today's Man stock rarely poked its head above $2 a share, trading generally around $1.80. On Jan. 17, the stock price cracked the $2 figure and later hovered around $2.50 a share.

Some area stocks helped boost the market to new heights last year; others missed the rising tide. About 55 out of the 251 publicly traded companies in the area saw their stock prices decline by 20 percent or more last year. Competition and declining sales were two common culprits affecting stock prices among companies at the bottom of the list. Delayed government contracts affected sales at Digital Descriptor Systems Inc., Langhorne. The company, which creates security programs using digitized imaging technology, ranked last on the local list of stock performers, with a 91 percent drop in stock price for the year.

A New York investor has launched a proxy fight at ECC International, of Wayne, demanding that management of the defense contractor and vending-machine maker sell all, or part, of the company. Michael N. Taglich, president of the brokerage Taglich Bros., D'Amadeo, Wagner & Co., is asking ECC to hire an investment banker to evaluate the company, which he said is worth more to its shareholders broken up. "Currently, the stock price is at a year's low, in the greatest bull market in history," he said.

The revelation this week by the film star Angelina Jolie of a double mastectomy to help avoid breast cancer had business and legal angles as well. Myriad Genetics, the Utah company at the center of a legal debate about the acceptability of gene patenting, has a monopoly on the testing Jolie underwent before opting for surgery. With the news about Jolie breaking Tuesday morning, the company's stock rose to a three-year high of $34.70 during trading on the NASDAQ before closing at $34.10.

A Philadelphia bank that invested in one of its Center City rivals in the spring is now pressuring that bank's management to reform its operations and boost its sagging stock price. USA BancShares, owner of BankPhiladelphia, borrowed $900,000, and spent another $185,000 in corporate funds, to take a 1.8 percent stake in Republic First Bancorp, owner of First Republic Bank, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and made public yesterday. Since USA began investing in Republic on April 28, Republic's stock has fallen from $12.375 per share to a close of $9.75 yesterday.

Add ".com" to your company's name and stockholders become instant millionaires, right? Not always. Although Internet companies have been the hot stocks on the market, not all newly-named ".com" companies are trading for more than $100 per share on the Nasdaq exchange. Several small companies, such as Dynamic Media.com, are languishing on the OTC Bulletin Board, hoping a name change will propel their stock price higher. In November, Dynamic Imaging Inc., a Philadelphia company that offers broadcast news specifically for the Internet, changed its name to Dynamic Media.

Internet Capital Group is about as big as a fancy Walnut Street restaurant, if you count its 50-member staff or its modest yearly revenue. But on the stock market, Internet Capital - with $4.5 million in revenue - is worth more than Cigna Corp., which has 50,000 employees, and almost as much as Campbell Soup Co., which has $7 billion in annual sales. After jumping $37 per share since Monday, Internet Capital is worth $18.8 billion - more than two-thirds of the big national companies in the Standard & Poor's 500. The stock closed yesterday at $154.

Rosetta Genomics Ltd., a diagnostic test developer based in Israel but with a key lab in Philadelphia, announced a 1-for-4 reverse split of its stock. It did so to raise its stock price to comply with rules for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market for small-cap companies. The combined shares will begin trading Thursday. Shares were trading Wednesday afternoon at 27 cents, down 2 cents.    - Mike Armstrong

Resource America Inc., a specialty asset manager in Philadelphia, said it formed a committee of independent directors to explore ways to boost its stock price, which has been stuck under $10 per share since the fall of 2008 after reaching $27.95 in February 2007. Possibilities for the company include going private and selling business units or the entire company, the company said. Resource America's advisers are the law firm Stevens & Lee and FBR Capital Markets. At mid-morning, the shares were trading for $4.56, up 11 cents, on Nasdaq.

The revelation this week by the film star Angelina Jolie of a double mastectomy to help avoid breast cancer had business and legal angles as well. Myriad Genetics, the Utah company at the center of a legal debate about the acceptability of gene patenting, has a monopoly on the testing Jolie underwent before opting for surgery. With the news about Jolie breaking Tuesday morning, the company's stock rose to a three-year high of $34.70 during trading on the NASDAQ before closing at $34.10.

Strong earnings boosted stocks Friday as investors also saw a chance to add to their holdings after declines earlier in the week. Nike reported a surge in quarterly profit, sending its stock price to a record. Tiffany topped earnings predictions, boosted by demand in Asia. A resilient global economy has encouraged investors to pick up stocks on any dips, said Ron Florance of Wells Fargo Private Bank. "We still have an astonishing amount of money sitting on the sidelines," he said.

Fear of a revived debt crisis in Europe faded from the stock market Wednesday, freeing the Dow Jones industrial average to touch an all-time high at midafternoon. Stocks traded steadily higher most of the day and spiked after the Federal Reserve said it would continue with aggressive measures to boost the economy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Cyprus crisis posed no major risk to the U.S. economy. After dipping Monday on concerns that Cyprus' banks could collapse and the Mediterranean island nation might have to exit the 17-member eurozone, the Dow ended a second straight day of gains up 55.91 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,511.73.

NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average logged its longest winning streak in two years - barely. A tiny gain gave the Dow its eighth straight increase Tuesday, long enough to match its longest series of gains since February 2011. The Dow rose 2.77 points, or 0.02 percent, to 14,450.06, having wavered between small gains and losses for most of the day. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 ended down 3.74 points, or 0.2 percent, at 1,552.48. The Nasdaq composite dropped 10.55 points, or 0.32 percent, to 3,242.32.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google's stock price topped $800 Tuesday for the first time amid renewed confidence in the company's ability to reap higher profits from its dominance of Internet search and prominence in the growing mobile market. The milestone comes more than five years after Google's shares initially hit $700. Not long after breaking that barrier in October 2007, the economy collapsed into the worst recession since World War II and Google's stock tumbled into a prolonged malaise that eventually led to a change in leadership.

NEW YORK - The Dow rose to its highest close of the year, putting it within 1 percent of its record. Stocks gained after impressive results from two big consumer brands. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 47.46 to 14,018.70 Tuesday. That is nearly 146 points from its record close of 14,164.53 set in October 2007. The Standard & Poor's 500 gained 2.42 points to 1,519.43, also close to its record. The Nasdaq composite was down 5.51 points at 3,186.49. The Dow has now advanced 7 percent this year, and the S&P 500 is up 6.6 percent.

NEW YORK - Stocks slumped Thursday on Wall Street, and the rally that has pushed indexes close to record levels stalled. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 42 points to 13,944, after sliding as much as 134 points earlier. The index has edged lower this week, after logging its best January in almost two decades. The Standard and Poor's 500 fell three points, to 1,509. The Nasdaq composite dropped three points, to 3,165. "We had such a big January, some type of weakness or consolidation makes sense here to us," said Ryan Detrick, of Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati.

Q: When a company is acquired by another, does its stock price always go up? - K.G., Dalton, Ga.   A: It depends. If the firm's market value is around $10 billion and it's bought for $15 billion, the stock price may jump on the news. When a company is very desirable, perhaps due to its products or growth prospects, a buyer may have to outbid other interested companies. But if it's struggling, it might get scooped up for a song, when its price is depressed. Meanwhile, if investors think that the acquiring company has struck a good deal, the price of its own stock might also rise.

NEW YORK - For the stock market, this week hasn't been the most wonderful time of the year. U.S. stocks fell Wednesday for the third trading day in a row. Disappointing holiday sales weighed heavily on retailers, and the unwelcome fiscal cliff package of higher taxes and lower government spending drew nearer. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 24.49 points to 13,114.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6.83 to 1,419.83 and the Nasdaq composite lost 22.44 to 2,990.16. Karyn Cavanaugh, market strategist with ING Investment Management in New York, wrote a note to clients Wednesday highlighting the less-than-merry retail sales.

Q: Who sets stock prices? - J.N., Seattle A: A company's stock price isn't set by anyone. Rather, once shares have been sold by the company to the public (either via an initial public offering or a secondary offering), they trade fairly freely in the stock market. It's not unlike trading cards, which are valued at what people will pay for them. If demand rises or falls, so do prices. That's why, if there's bad news about a company, its stock usually will soon be worth less - and vice versa.