Wintrust Financial Corp.'s stock plunged Friday after the company reported what investors perceived as disappointing core earnings.
In heavy trading the stock was down 13.5% late Friday, to $50.71.
Though the $8.4 billion-asset Lake Forest, Ill., company said late Thursday that first-quarter earnings rose 21% from a year earlier, to $19 million, analysts said the net income would have declined if not for the proceeds from the sale of a mutual fund and an increase in the value of interest rate swaps.
Wintrust said earnings per share increased 19%, to 76 cents, beating the consensus estimate by a penny. But analysts said that the sale of the Wayne Hummer Growth Fund and the increase in the value of the swaps - both one-time events - added 15 cents to the earnings per share.
Kevin K. Reevey and David Hamilton, two analysts with BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc.'s Ryan Beck & Co. Inc., downgraded the stock to "market perform," from "outperform." Wintrust said interest income rose 14%, to $55.6 million. Noninterest income rose 18%, to $28.7 million.
