Aug. 10, 2006, 12:58PM Worldspace Plummets to 52-Week Low
Associated Press http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4108347.html NEW YORK Shares of Worldspace Inc. plummeted to a 52-week low Thursday after the satellite radio provider's second-quarter loss widened, missing Wall Street expectations and prompting an analyst downgrade. The stock fell $1.07, or 32.5 percent, to $2.22 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq on nearly triple its average daily volume after falling as low as $2.12 earlier in the session. Shares hit their 52-week high almost a year ago. Worldspace's loss, reported Wednesday after the closing bell, widened to $36.7 million, or 98 cents per share, from $22 million, or 95 cents per share, a year ago. Wall Street expected a narrower loss of 73 cents per share. Revenue jumped to $3.8 million from $2.3 million. UBS analyst Lucas Binder cut his rating on the stock to "Neutral" from "Buy," in a note to investors Thursday, citing higher-than-expected churn, which measures the rate of customer turnover. "Disappointing growth has too great an impact on valuation," he wrote. "Unfortunately, we have no visibility for the second half of 2006 at this stage, which has led us to downgrade." Worldspace seeks to offer satellite radio service to underdeveloped areas, primarily in India, but Binder wrote he was "discouraged with the lack of execution at the India level and believe any fixes will extend the execution time line." ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
