Cascade Bancorp Inc. shares gained 7.5% Thursday after the Bend, Ore., company reported a hefty second-quarter earnings increase.
The company said its 83% year-over-year profit increase to $9 million, was largely attributable to its April acquisition of F&M Holding Co. in Boise, Idaho.
Only a handful of financial services stocks posted gains Thursday. The American Banker index of 225 bank stocks dropped 2.33%, and the thrift index slipped 0.73%.
The broader markets also fell, while oil prices and concern about unrest in the Middle East rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.3%, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.52%.
Lakeland Bancorp Inc. of Oak Ridge, N.J., fell 2.4% after reporting second-quarter net income of $5.1 million, flat with the year-earlier period.
BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. dropped 2.4% after analysts tempered their view of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company's plan to sell its brokerage company, Ryan Beck & Co. Inc., in an initial public offering after a similar IPO this week did not perform as well as hoped.
Societe Generale AG of Paris priced its 11.2-million-share offering of Cowen Group Inc. of New York at $16 Wednesday, below the expected range of $19 to $21. Cowen fell 0.8% Thursday, to $15.88.
Mercantile Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore rose 0.1% after Credit Suisse Securities LLC upgraded the stock to "neutral" from "underperform." Mercantile shares opened Thursday up 1.2%.
Credit Suisse's Christopher M. Mutascio wrote in a research note that he believes Mercantile is more apt to buy than sell. Further consolidation in the Middle Atlantic could create "a perception-based floor" for Mercantile's share price, he wrote.
First BanCorp of San Juan, Puerto Rico, rose 1.7% after Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP's Avi Barak upgraded it to "hold" from "sell." Mr. Barak, whose firm lists First BanCorp as a client, wrote that he changed his rating based on valuation.
Other San Juan companies were among the decliners -- Santander Bancorp fell 6.1% and both R&G Financial Corp. and Doral Financial Corp. fell 3.5%.
Southern Community Financial Corp. of Winston-Salem, N.C., announced after the market closed Wednesday that it took a $2.7 million charge in the second quarter related to the sale of $87.8 million of securities. Shares of Southern Community rose 0.4%.
In the same announcement Southern Community said it restated earnings from 2003 through the first quarter of 2006, which led to an $800,000 decrease in retained earnings to reflect a change in accounting for interest rate swaps.
Other gainers were FirstMerit Corp. of Akron, which rose 1%, and Countrywide Financial Corp. of Calabasas, Calif., which rose 0.9%.
