Institutional Investors

Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. said yesterday that it has agreed to sell more than 2 million shares of common stock to institutional investors, which will raise $36.3 million for the drug maker. The Baltimore company plans to use the proceeds to finance a new commercial operations group that will sell and market Gliadel, a surgically implanted wafer that delivers a chemotherapy drug directly to the site of brain tumors, said Andy Jordan, Guilford's chief financial officer. Money from the sale also will be used to finance clinical trials this year of as many as five different drugs, three that it hopes will be in development in the first quarter and two later this year.

Legg Mason Inc.'s net income soared 50 percent and revenue jumped 33 percent in the first quarter of its fiscal year, as retail and institutional investors poured money into the company's mutual funds and fixed-income services.Revenue, income and income per share reached all-time highs for the quarter that ended June 30, the company said yesterday.Revenue rose to $248.7 million in the first quarter, up from $186.6 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. Net income surged to $24.4 million in the quarter, up from $16.3 million in the year-earlier period.

CHALK UP a crucial victory for Norfolk Southern in its fight with CSX over East Coast rail dominance. On Friday, stockholders of Conrail rejected a recommended merger with CSX, a vote that showed strong enthusiasm for an alternative, higher offer from Norfolk Southern.The rejection indicated near-unanimous hostility by institutional investors to the CSX-Conrail merger plan. They were especially infuriated by the arrogance of the two companies' leaders, who made it clear that they would continue to try to ram this deal through, although Norfolk Southern is offering a far better financial package.

Oncor Inc., the Gaithersburg-based biotechnology company, got a year-end boost yesterday -- $10 million from institutional investors.The closing of that deal gives the company $16 million to work with as it struggles to get its first product approved in the U.S.The investment comes as good news to the company on the heels earlier this month of a Food and Drug Administration panel's rejection of its request to market in the U.S. a gene-based test for the...

MedImmune Inc. raised $66.3 million in a private placement of stock with three institutional investors, the company said yesterday.The Gaithersburg-based biotechnology firm, which is developing treatments for infectious diseases, said 1.7 million new shares of common stock will be issued at $39 per share to BB Biotech, Investor AB and Invesco Funds Group.The company said the transaction depends upon Securities and Exchange Commission approvals.Upon closing of the financing, MedImmune will have 26.2 million shares outstanding.

WALL STREET'S hidebound, full-service brokerage system survived the advent of discount brokerages. But it may face a more formidable challenge with the buying and selling of stocks online.Last year, about 14 percent of all stock trades were handled online. Online brokerages have an estimated 7 million customer accounts with about $420 billion in assets. As long as the bull market lurches upward, as it has for eight years, the growth in electronic trading is expected to grow exponentially.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Postal Service is belatedly delivering thousands of insider-trade reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, paper filings delayed when anthrax contaminated Washington's postal center three months ago. The reports of executive stock transactions from October through early December are just now arriving at the SEC, where they are studied by investors as a sign of how company insiders view the strength of their companies' stock....

NEW YORK - Richard Ketchum, the CitiGroup Inc. legal officer just named the New York Stock Exchange's new top regulator, says he can convince U.S. institutional investors that the world's biggest stock market can police itself. "I have a profound commitment to self-regulation," Ketchum, 53, told reporters late Thursday, hours after being appointed to the new post of chief regulatory officer. "The first thing I can do is make it work." U.S. pension funds say the NYSE's integrity as an enforcer is compromised because it's a marketplace owned by its members.

Howard County sold $64 million in bonds yesterday in an online auction that attracted 11 bidders. Ferris Baker Watts Inc. was the winning bidder at 3.912 percent interest for $60 million worth of the bonds intended for general county use. The $4 million portion was for metropolitan district utility bonds, and Wachovia Bank won that bid with a 4.306 percent interest rate. "We're extremely pleased," said Sharon Greisz, county finance director, who added that the number of bidders was double the norm.

Q. Why do companies buy back their own stock, and does it help me as an investor? They present it as a good thing. K.C., via the Internet A. Companies holding a lot of extra cash are aggressively purchasing their own shares this year. Historically, 20 percent of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 reduce their share number through buybacks each year. This rose to 33 percent in the first quarter of this year and 50 percent in the second quarter, according to Standard & Poor's Corp.