Small
cap stocks making big moves on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 (as of 4 pm EST)
GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH)
shares powered 32% higher to $60.86 on volume of more than 6.4 million shares
Tuesday after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of the cannabis prescription
drug company’s stock with an “overweight” rating and a $103 per
share price target. Its analyst views the company’s cannabis based epilepsy
treatment drug, Epidiolex, as having “strong potential, with the
epilepsy program driving valuation.”
As
well, shares of Medidata (NASDAQ: MDSO)
sank 23% to $40.71 on more than 10.2 million shares traded as the provider of
cloud-based solutions for clinical research in life sciences reported
first-quarter earnings of $0.11 per share, excluding non-recurring items, missing
the Wall Street consensus estimate by $0.05. Revenue for the period rose
21% year over year to $76.6 million but that too fell short of the $79.55 million
forecast.
IntriCon
Corporation (NASDAQ: IIN), meanwhile,
announced first-quarter net sales that rose 22.5% to $17.3 million, while
net income for the quarter was $517,000, or $0.09 per diluted share, compared with
a net loss of $471,000, or $0.08 per diluted share, during the same period last
year. IntriCon stock shot up 43% to $6.66.
Finally,
Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCII)
shares gained 11% to $28.53 after the rent-to-own operator said it expects 3.0%
to 6.0% total revenue growth for 2014, along with same store sales growth of
approximately 3.0% to 5.5%. As well, its diluted earnings per share guidance of
$2.30 to $2.50 surpassed the Wall Street consensus forecast.
