Abracadabra -- subprime gravity defying stocks
By Matt Carter, Tuesday, January 15, 2008.
As the Dow Jones plunged 277 points today, title insurer First American
Corp. and loan servicer Ocwen Financial saw their shares post big gains. How did they do it?
Most companies got hammered on Wall Street today, regardless of industry. Although an announcement by Citigroup that it was writing down $18.1 billion in investments tied to subprime mortgages wasn't as bad as expected, a Commerce Department report showing a slowdown in retail sales in December got more people thinking the r word, recession.
But First American got a 7 percent boost in its share price after announcing that it would spin off its title insurance and other insurance businesses into a separate company (see Inman News story). That still left the company's stock down 43.1 percent from its 52-week high of $55.25.
Loan servicer Ocwen Financial revealed Oaktree Capital Management is offering to buy the company for $7 a share. Since Ocwen closed at $3.98 Monday, investors pushed the stock up 53 percent today, to $6.09 -- down 54 percent from its one-year high.
For the rest of the 38 real estate related companies in the table listed below (click "continue reading" to see), there was little to cheer about today.
Real estate stock trends
| Company | Close Jan. 15, percent change | 52-week high, percent change |
| Lenders/mortgage finance | ||
| NovaStar Financial | $2.03, -2.4 percent | $94.52, -97.8 percent |
| Impac Mortgage | $0.85, -7.61 percent | $9.05, -90.6 percent |
| IndyMac Bancorp | $4.49, -5.67 percent | $42.55, -89.4 percent |
| E-Trade Financial Corp. | $2.92, -9.88 percent | $26.08, -88.8 percent |
| Countrywide | $5.81, -4.6 percent | $45.26, -87.2 percent |
| Fremont General | $3.40, -6.85 percent | $14.66, -76.8 percent |
| Washington Mutual | $13.59, -5.1 percent | $45.81, -70.3 percent |
| Ocwen Financial | $6.09, +53.02 percent | $16.95, -64.1 percent |
| Freddie Mac | $30.73, -0.9 percent | $68.12, -54.9 percent |
| Citigroup Inc. | $26.94, -7.3 percent | $55.55, -51.5 percent |
| Fannie Mae | $36.30, -1.94 percent | $70.57, -48.6 percent |
| Morgan Stanley | $47.13, -3.62 percent | $90.95, -48.2 percent |
| Lehman Brothers | $55.71, -5.9 percent | $86.18, -35.4 percent |
| UBS AG | $44.19, -2.96 percent | $66.26, -33.3 percent |
| Wells Fargo | $26.49, -6.1 percent | $37.99, -30.3 percent |
| Bank of America | $37.88, -3.42 percent | $54.21, -30.1 percent |
| Credit Suisse Group | $56.80, -2.61 percent | $79.29, -28.4 percent |
| JPMorgan Chase | $39.17, -5.29 percent | $53.25, -26.4 percent |
| Deutsche Bank AG | $121.67, -3.99 percent | $159.76, -23.8 percent |
| Mortgage/bond insurers | ||
| Triad Guarantee Inc. | $7.00, -3.45 percent | $58.62, -88.1 percent |
| Radian Group Inc. | $8.82, -6.17 percent | $67.35, -86.9 percent |
| PMI Group Inc. | $8.40, -5.08 percent | $51.46, -83.7 percent |
| MBIA Inc. | $16.05, -5.87 percent | $76.02, -78.9 percent |
| MGIC Investment Corp. | $16.99, -5.08 percent | $70.10, -75.8 percent |
| Builders | ||
| WCI Communities | $2.12, -15.87 percent | $24.20, -91.2 percent |
| Hovnanian Ent | $5.93, -1.0 percent | $37.58, -84.2 percent |
| Lennar Corp. | $13.97, -6.37 percent | $56.54, -75.3 percent |
| Pulte Homes Inc. | $8.80, -6.78 percent | $35.56, -75.2 percent |
| KB Home | $17.00, -6.64 percent | $56.08, -69.7 percent |
| Centex Corp. | $20.00, -7.02 percent | $55.62, -64.0 percent |
| DR Horton Inc. | $11.30, -2.08 percent | $31.13, -63.7 percent |
| Toll Brothers Inc. | $16.15, -3.52 percent | $35.64, -54.7 percent |
| Title/RE info companies | ||
| LandAmerica Financial | $27.02, -2.88 percent | $108.92, -75.2 percent |
| Fidelity National Financial | $13.60, -1.45 percent | $28.62, -52.5 percent |
| Stewart Information Services | $22.66, -5.82 percent | $45.05, -49.7 percent |
| First American Corp. | $31.44, +7.08 percent | $55.25, -43.1 percent |
| Old Republic International | $14.08, -2.36 percent | $23.28, -39.5 percent |
| RE brokers/Web sites | ||
| Move Inc. | $1.97, -6.19 percent | $6.69, -70.5 percent |
| Housevalues Inc. | $2.95, +0.34 percent | $5.89, -49.9 percent |
| zipRealty Inc. | $5.34, -0.37 percent | $7.98, -33.1 percent |
Source: Yahoo! Finance
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