Still struggling to work through its bad residential construction loans, West Coast Bancorp in Lake Oswego, Ore., said Monday that its second-quarter earnings fell 67% from a year earlier, to $2.7 million.
However, its earnings per share of 17 cents beat the average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters by 2 cents.
Its stock rose 8.2% by late Monday, to $10.83.
The $2.6 billion-asset West Coast said its loan-loss provision jumped 77% from last year's second quarter but fell 31% compared with the first quarter, to $6 million.
Nonperforming assets rose 24-fold from a year earlier, to $147 million, or 5.6% of total assets. In the previous quarter its nonperforming assets were $105 million, or 4% of the total.
The net interest margin contracted 96 basis points from a year earlier and 2 basis points from the previous quarter, to 3.94%. The company attributed the drop to interest rate reversals on nonperforming loans, lower construction loan fees, deposit competition, and lower loan yields after the decrease in the federal funds rate.
