AOL declines in first day of trading, Time Warner gains

It was Independence Day for AOL (AOL) on Thursday as the company was formally spun off from Time Warner (TWX), but the stock's debut on the New York Stock Exchange was something less than fireworks.

Shares in AOL -- DailyFinance's parent company -- spent almost the entire session in the red, but finished down just 0.6%, or 15 cents a share, at $23.52. Time Warner, meanwhile, gained 4.3%, or $1.24 a share, to close at $30.45, helped by positive analysts reports from BMO Capital Markets and Collins Stewart, among other brokerages.