HealthSouth Corp. Soars to New 52-wk High on Share Buying Plans

NEW YORK, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Shares of HealthSouth Corp. hit a new 52-week high of $26.40 on Wednesday after announcing that the Company plans to buy back $232 million worth of its stock at a price that's at the top end of a range it set for the offer. HealthSouth is the country's largest owner and operator of rehabilitation hospitals. The Company has said it will buy about 9.1 million shares of its common stock at a price of $25.50 apiece, for a total of about $232.1 million, excluding costs related to the offer. Shares closed up 5.34% at $25.84 yesterday.

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MODEL N, INC. (NYSE: MODN) - Model N Inc. made its Wall Street debut on Wednesday and soared as much as 44% on its first day of trading. The company priced at $15.50 a share was above its projected range of $12.50 to $14.50. Shares hit as high as $22.25 yesterday. The Company traded 9,494,754 shares on its first day. Model N provides revenue management software to life science and technology companies that help manage pricing, deals, contracts and rebates. The company counts Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific Corp, Dell Inc. and VMware Inc. as its customers.

Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (Nasdaq: OMPI) - Obagi Medical Products was one of the biggest advancers on the Nasdaq composite yesterday. The stock hit as high as $19.74 in intra-day trading forming a new 52-week high for the company. The big move came after news revealed that Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) will be buying Obagi for about $344 million. Obagi manufactures aesthetic and therapeutic skin-health systems under brand names such as Obagi Nu-Derm, Condition & Enhance, Obagi-C Rx, ELASTIDerm and CLENZIDerm. Shares of OMPI closed up 28.20% at $19.73.

BioLineRx, Ltd. (Nasdaq: BLRX) - BLRX shares more than split in half on Wednesday. The stock sank as low as $1.60 in intra-day trading making it a new 52-week low for the Company. The drop came after BioLineRx halted a mid-stage clinical trial on an experimental drug that failed to improve the cognitive ability of patients with schizophrenia.  As a result of the CLARITY study termination, the Company anticipates that planned research and development expenses will decrease for the remainder of 2013 and part of 2014 by approximately $6 to $7 million. The stock's previous close on Tuesday was $3.81. Shares closed at $1.80 on Wednesday with more than 3 million shares traded.

BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) - BlackBerry shares traded higher on Wednesday after getting an upgrade from Morgan Stanley. The brokerage firm upgraded BlackBerry's stock, moving it to "over weight" from "under weight" and doubled its price target for share. Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum raised his price target on the company to $22 from $10. Gelblum called Blackberry a "niche mid range player" in today's smartphone marketplace. BlackBerry is expected to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results on March 28. The stock closed up 6.45% yesterday at $16.00.

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) - Shares of Williams-Sonoma hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday at $50.49. The Company posted fourth-quarter profit late Tuesday that beat views. The Company also announced strong online sales, hiked its dividend and announced a hefty buyback program. Williams-Sonoma said it earned $1.34 a share in the holiday quarter, ahead of views by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $1.29 cents a share. Revenue rose 11% to $1.40 billion, which was in line with forecasts for sales of $1.39 billion. Shares of WSM closed up 10.26%, at $49.85 with trading volume at nearly 9 million shares.

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