After a months-long internal investigation into its accounting for loan losses, Suffolk Bancorp in Riverhead, N.Y.. has restated its 2010 earnings to show a much smaller profit than first reported.
The $1.6 billion-asset company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Tuesday that loan-loss provisions it took in last year's third and fourth quarters should have been higher and that, as a result, it earned $6.2 million for the year, or nearly $9 million less than it initially reported. The restatement also showed that Suffolk swung to a $3.1 million loss in last year's third quarter after it first reported a profit of $4.7 million.
Suffolk notified investors in August that its audit committee had identified weaknesses in its accounting for loan losses and said that
"While we regret the delay in reporting our results, we believe that the comprehensive review that we have undertaken was necessary to provide our investors with what we believe to be accurate information," J. Gordon Huszagh, Suffolk's president and chief executive officer said in a news release.
In early trading Wednesday, Suffolk's shares were up more than 13%, to $10.01. Its stock had not traded above $10 since early August.
