Americas

After ripping off 11 straight quarters of losses, the Blairsville, Ga., company reported a second-period profit last week. That turned heads.

BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is heading west to try to drum up interest in its stock.

West Coast Bancorp in Lake Oswego, Ore., reported a profit of $4.6 million in the second quarter, a vast improvement over the same period last year, but a bit of a letdown when compared with this year's first quarter.

SCBT Financial Corp. in Columbia, S.C., which bought a failed bank and raised capital in February, on Friday posted its best quarterly results in two years.

In its second full quarter as a 100% stock-owned company, Capitol Federal Financial Inc. in Topeka reported earnings of $17.3 million, an increase of 11% over the same period in 2010.

First Mariner Bancorp reported a loss of $11 million in the second quarter, plunging the ailing Baltimore company deeper into a capital hole.

The $9.5 billion-asset company in Flint, Mich., announced after the market closed on Thursday that it earned $18.5 million in the second quarter, compared to a net loss of $44.7 million a year earlier and a loss of $74.3 million in the first quarter.

Fueled by strong loan growth and improved expense control, Investors Bancorp Inc. in Short Hills, N.J., reported a profit of $19.6 million in the second quarter, up 28% from the same period last year.

Porter Bancorp Inc. in Lousville, Ky., reported a loss of $39 million in the second quarter after it wrote off scores of problem loans and took a hefty impairment charge to reflect its declining market value.

Buoyed by improving asset quality, National Penn Bancshares reported earnings of $23.3 million in the second quarter, compared to a loss of $5.5 million in the same period last year.