In Brief: NetBank Turns A Profit Again

ATLANTA — NetBank Inc. said last week that it met analysts’ second-quarter estimates and turned a profit for the 13th straight quarter.

Net income for the period was $779,000, or 3 cents a share. In the year-earlier quarter it had a net loss of $410,000, or 1 cent a share, before one-time gains pushed the Internet-only bank into the black.

Highlights of the three months included the acquisition of Market Street Mortgage, a leading originator, said D.R. Grimes, NetBank’s chairman and chief executive officer. The deal closed June 29 and did not affect second-quarter earnings.

Market Street, a 15-year-old company in Clearwater, Fla., has 43 offices in 11 states and is expected to originate more than $2.4 billion of mortgages this year. Mr. Grimes said he expects Market Street to become a big revenue producer at NetBank.

In May, four-year-old NetBank converted about 47,000 accounts it had acquired from CompuBank of Houston. Richard H. Repetto, an analyst with Putnam Lovell Securities in New York, said that enabled NetBank to cut its marketing spending 42%, to $711,000, in the second quarter and save it about 2.5 cents a share.

NetBank usually adds 20,000 to 30,000 accounts per quarter. Aside from those of CompuBank it added only 8,000 in the second quarter.

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