A year-end rally meant that six St. Louis companies saw their stock prices rise in 2008, up from the four I highlighted in a previous post. Commerce Bancshares and Esco Technologies eked out gains to join the four solid performers…

With five trading days left in 2008, it looks like only a handful of St. Louis companies will make money for their investors. At the moment, only four have share prices that are up for the year: Panera Bread, up 40%;…

KV Pharmaceutical paid Chief Executive Marc Hermelin a total of $5.3 million last year, according to a proxy statement filed with the SEC. That included a salary of $1.28 million, incentive pay of $2.55 million and retirement accrual of $877,000.…

KV Pharmaceutical, in a preliminary earnings report today, discloses that it is holding $16.4 million of auction-rate securities that have suddenly become illiquid.

As I discussed in a recent column, the market for these bonds froze up in mid-February, forcing issuers like…