HealthCare Rebounds in Week’s Trading

HealthCare USA common stock took a roller coaster ride last week, slipping to a new one-year low of $5 a share Tuesday before rebounding more than $2 by week’s end to close at $7.13 a share Friday in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The embattled Orange-based health plan operator’s stock price had been slipping for more than two weeks before beginning its dramatic and unexplained rebound on Wednesday.

“I don’t have any reason for it,” HealthCare USA spokeswoman Sheila Kinnane said about the stock activity.

Still, the company said it has been approached by potential suitors. Harlan Loomas, HealthCare USA’s chairman and chief executive, said no acquisition is pending, and it remained unclear Friday if the stock rose on rumors of a pending takeover.

Hard-Pressed to Explain

Securities analysts, frustrated with what they describe as an embargo on information about the goings-on at HealthCare USA, are also hard-pressed to explain the recent upturn in the firm’s stock price.

“The company’s officials are permanently sequestered, trying to find a way to turn it around or to sell it,” said David Talbot, who follows HealthCare USA for the investment firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

Though HealthCare USA posted a modest recovery last week, Smith International Inc. and Varco International Inc., two Orange County oil-services companies whose stock took a beating on the Big Board the previous week, remained in the doldrums.

When the closing bell rang Friday, Smith International was trading for $3.88 a share, down 75 cents for the week, while Varco was being trading at $2.63 a share, down 50 cents from the previous week’s close.

Also going for a roller coaster ride last week was Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., whose stock price hit a new 12-month high of $14.88 a share Wednesday, but slipped back to $14 a share by the close of trading Friday.