LITTLE ROCK — Deltic’s quarter flat compared with ’11
Deltic Timber Corp.
earned $100,000 in the first quarter, unchanged from the same period last year, the El Dorado firm said Monday.
Deltic earned 1 cent per share, also the same as in the first quarter last year.
The firm had revenue of $30.6 million in the first quarter, up 4.2 percent from $29.4 million in the first quarter last year.
Deltic was able to make a profit despite the negative effect on the company caused by the weak housing market, said Ray Dillon, Deltic’s chief executive officer.
Still, the company is seeing a slight increase in lot sales in Little Rock’s Chenal Valley residential development because of low mortgage rates, Dillon said. But he was unable to project potential sales for the second quarter.
Deltic harvested 173,000 tons of pine saw timber in the first quarter, up 18 percent from a year earlier.
The average price per ton was $22, down 15 percent.
Bancorp South earns $23 million in quarter
Bancorp South Inc., the seventh-largest bank operating in Arkansas, earned $22.9 million in the first quarter, the Tupelo, Miss., lender said Monday.
The bank lost $500,000 in the first quarter last year.
The first quarter’s net income was the highest three-month total in more than two years, said Aubrey Patterson, chairman and chief executive officer.
Bancorp South, which has $1.9 billion in deposits and 61 branches in Arkansas, earned 25 cents per share in the first quarter, up from a loss of 1 cent per share in the first quarter last year.
Bancorp South has total assets of $13.3 billion in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. It operates 290 branches in those states.
State index slides 4.43 with 13 stocks down
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, declined 4.43 to 225.69 on Monday.
“U.S. stocks started the week on a down note as negative events in Europe seeped into investors’ radar,” said Chris Harkins, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock. “The Arkansas Index moved lower as only three stocks rallied, while 13 declined.”
Wal-Mart fell 4.6 percent on news of an investigation into purported bribes used to expand market share in Mexico, Harkins said.
First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas surged another 3.3 percent, closing at its highest level of the year, Harkins said.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 19 on 04/24/2012