Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (NYSE: PPC) shares rose sharply after the company announced that it would stop production at two of its chicken-processing plants in a move to rein in losses. The painful actions are deemed necessary by the company in order to position it to emerge from the down cycle as a much stronger and more efficient competitor.

The news comes after Pilgrim's Pride announced a third-quarter loss of $52.8 million after posting a $62.6 million profit just a year earlier. The results come on the heels of higher feed and commodity costs that are quickly eating into profit margins. Meanwhile, the chicken industry is also facing pricing pressures as a result of over-supply.

Pilgrim's Pride stock is far below its 52-week high of $41 per share on such problems. Oil prices may have subsided in recent days, but it is the feed costs that has many concerned. Meanwhile, there are no signs that chicken prices will recover as consumers purchase less and supply continues to grow.

The hope is that today's job cuts will at least reduce costs in an effort to boost the bottom line. Whether or not this effort will be pay off remains to be seen, but at least it is a step in the right direction, and that's what shareholders were looking for today...

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Bronco Drilling Company (NDAQ: BRNC) shares continued their decline after ISS Governance Services recommended a vote against the proposed merger with Allis-Chalmers Energy. The shareholder advisory service concluded that given the relatively strict sales process, increase in EBITDA estimates for the peer group, and a valuation analysis of the company, shareholders should vote against the proposed transaction.

The announcement by ISS Governance is a welcome message for Third Avenue Management - an activist shareholder that has been fighting the merger since its announcement. The 23.4% shareholder expressed its belief that the offer was undervalued several times in Schedule 13D filings with the SEC and may now have enough support to prevent the merger. Supporters include 12.8% holder Wexford Capital and 6.1% holder Alpine Associates.

Bronco Drilling Company provides contract land drilling and workover services to oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. As of February 29, 2008, the Company owned a fleet of 56 land drilling rigs, of which 45 were marketed and 11 were held in inventory. Bronco also owned a fleet of 59 workover rigs, of which 49 were operating and 10 were in the process of being manufactured. The Company also owned a fleet of 70 trucks used to transport its rigs.

Shares of Bronco Drilling dropped $0.09, or 0.56%, to $15.86 per share.

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Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) sharesholders are growing increasingly impatient after the company announced yet another sharp drop in second quarter earnings. Net income at the media company fell 22 cents per share, while sales rose 5.2 percent to top analyst estimates.

AOL housed the majority of the problems this quarter. The internet service provider lost 604,000 web access subscribers while ad sales rose just 2 percent to $530 million. AOL shifted its focus on ad sales as the dialup ISP market began to shrink. Unfortunately, the move came just as online advertising peaked and now growth is hard to come by in the industry. Luckily, the unit's third-party ad network and revenue partnership with Google offset much of the losses.

AOL's publishing group also came up short this quarter. Time Inc. reported a 9 percent drop in advertising revenue as print advertising moves towards the online markets. In fact, the only bright spot in the quarter was the cable teleivion and film businesses that managed to drive growth in the quarter. All of this has investors wondering just when the company will be broken up so that true value can be unlocked.

CEO Jeff Bewkes recently announced his plans to get rid of Time Warner Cable and focus on TV and film instead. The executive merged the Warner Brothers and New Line studios to lower costs and said he was open to selling AOL back in May. Since then, parties like Microsoft have expressed interest, but there have been no late-stage conversations. The ability to sell off the cable division stake along with a sale of AOL should generate enough cash to satisfy shareholders.

Time Warner shares dropped sharply lower at open before recovering for a small profit.

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