Weekly interest and loan rates | Home values Northwest stock contest 2004 | Consumer affairs

Snohomish County business
Banks show growth in 1st quarter

By Jane Hodges
Times Snohomish County bureau

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

It's quarterly earnings time for public companies, and for the period that ended March 31, Snohomish County banks showed continued revenue growth and several local biotech firms continued to post losses as they worked to introduce or market their products.

Three Everett banks reported profitable quarters. Frontier Financial posted a first-quarter profit of $10.1 million, a 4.1 percent increase over the corresponding quarter of 2003. Cascade Financial reported a profit of $2.6 million, up 13 percent over last year's first quarter. EverTrust Financial Group reported a quarterly profit of $2.2 million, up 10 percent over a year ago.

Lynnwood-based City Bank showed an 8.2 percent decline in net income, from $4.9 million during 2003's first quarter to $4.5 million this year.

Many local biotech firms have continued to post losses as they spend to push products through regulatory processes and on to customers.

Losses widened at Nastech Pharmaceutical (a loss of $7.6 million for the quarter versus $2.9 million a year ago), Sonus Pharmaceuticals ($3.6 million versus $2.3 million), Icos ($86.3 million versus $40.5 million) and Seattle Genetics ($8.9 million versus $6 million).

SonoSite's first-quarter loss shrank to $1.4 million, down from $2.6 million during last year's corresponding period.

Biomedical-equipment firm Quinton Cardiology Systems reported net income of $1.1 million, a positive change from a loss of $1.9 million during the prior year, and filed last week to sell 3 million more shares.

Tech firm Unova announced a profitable quarter, with $10.5 million in net earnings for the quarter, compared with losses of $14.9 million a year ago.

Abarim Business Computers owner Tim Raetzloff, who tracks local public companies, said that despite some continued losses, the revenue growth at biotech firms means more are headed toward profits.

Separately, he believes that if Mountlake Terrace-based Premera Blue Cross successfully converts to a public company, it would benefit the county. The insurer is undergoing two weeks of hearings in Olympia on the matter. The company, he said, could have a market capitalization — the sum of all outstanding shares of stock — ranging from $500 million to $1 billion.
 
"I'm very pleased with this quarter," said Raetzloff, who is based in Edmonds. "Other than the banks here, most of our companies used to not make any money.

Jane Hodges: 425-745-7813 or jhodges@seattletimes.com