Shares of Com Dev International Ltd. were up nearly six per cent Thursday after the abrupt departure of the company's CEO a day earlier and an expected weak earnings report later in the day from the satellite technology company.
At midday, Com Dev stock was up 10 cents, or almost six per cent, at $1.84 on trading of more than one million shares.
Last week, Com Dev revised its 2010 outlook downward for the second time this summer, hitting the company's stock price.
And on Wednesday, it said it was replacing its chief executive John Keating, effective immediately, adding that Keating would also be leaving the company board.
Chief operating officer Mike Pley was appointed interim CEO while it searches for a replacement for Keating.
"Com Dev wishes to express its gratitude for the significant contribution that Mr. Keating has made to the company and wishes him well in his future endeavours," said Com Dev's chairman Terry Reidel.
"The company is moving on to the next phase of development in its business plan with a renewed focus on profitability and the board of directors was of the view a new vision was required at this time."
The satellite component maker, based in the southwestern Ontario city of Cambridge, said that its third quarter ended July 31 would produce a $1.7 million loss instead of an expected profit and its 2010 annual revenue would be lower than last year's, rather than modestly higher.
Analysts had previously projected that Com Dev would report a profit for the third quarter and substantially higher revenue than the $52 million in its revised projection for the three-month period.
In issuing the financial warning, Keating said last week that the company had been grappling with rising costs of five satellite programs.
"Collectively, those programs are 86 per cent complete and are expected to represent a steadily decreasing proportion of our revenues, falling from five per cent of Q3 2010 revenues to less than two per cent of revenues by the second half of next year," he said in a statement.
"We believe we have taken the appropriate steps to fully address the expected costs on these five programs, so they won't continue to generate negative gross margins.'"
The company is a global designer and manufacturer of space hardware subsystems with facilities in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its products are sold to major satellite prime contractors for use in communications, space science, remote sensing and military satellites.
