NovaStar Delays Earnings; Stock Hit

Subprime lender NovaStar Financial postponed its fourth-quarter earnings release Friday morning, sending its stock down 12%.In a statement released just after midnight Thursday, the Kansas City, Mo.-based lender -- a target of short-sellers -- blamed the delay on its decision "to obtain legal opinions to further support certain tax positions" of the company. As of MortgageWire's deadline, its spokesman could not be reached for comment. In the statement, the nation's 17th-largest funder of subprime loans did not elaborate on the matter. Over the past six months some directors and officers, including director Gregory Barmore (a former chief executive of GE Mortgage Insurance), have been exercising options and announcing their intention to sell shares. At midday Friday, NovaStar was trading at $27.65, about $2 above its 52-week low and $15 below its high. NovaStar's subsidiary NovaStar Mortgage can be found on the Web at http://www.novastarmortgage.com.