Mossimo Stock Surges 18%; NYSE Asks for Explanation

IRVINE —  Stock in trendy sportswear maker Mossimo Inc. rose 18% Wednesday in heavy trading, prompting the New York Stock Exchange to ask the company for an explanation for the sudden surge in price and volume.

Mossimo said only that it hasn’t done anything that it believes would account for the trading activity. The stock climbed $1.125 a share Wednesday to $7.375. It closed Friday at $6.

Wall Street traded 306,800 shares of Mossimo stock Wednesday, compared with 89,300 shares on Tuesday. That increase went beyond daily averages, said Tony Cherbak, Mossimo’s chief financial officer.

Such shifts in daily volume have occurred a number of times since the 10-year-old company went public early last year in an initial offering that was gobbled up by investors hungry for hot stocks.

Traders quickly pushed the price to $50.125 a share, and the price remained high through much of the summer and early fall.

But in September, lower-than-expected earnings caused by higher production costs for new lines of clothing started the stock tumbling. The company’s recent announcement that it anticipated a first-quarter loss and flat revenue knocked the stock down last week to its all-time low of $5.875 a share.