News in brief

Southern Bancorp buys 2-branch bank

Southern Bancorp has agreed to buy the Bank of Bolivar County in Mississippi, the Arkadelphia bank said Tuesday.

The Bank of Bolivar County has two branches, in the communities of Shelby and Mound Bayou. Southern Bancorp has a branch in Shelby but Mound Bayou will be a new market.

"Southern was founded to serve distressed, rural communities like these and to help create economic opportunity for those living there," said Darrin Williams, Southern's chief executive officer.

Bank of Bolivar County has only $17.3 million in assets, making it one of the smallest banks in Mississippi.

Southern, one of the largest community development financial institutions in the country, has $1.1 billion in assets and 80,000 customers at its 39 branches in Arkansas and Mississippi.

-- David Smith

Car-Mart to release first-quarter results

America's Car-Mart will release first-quarter earnings for the company's fiscal 2015 after close of market today.

The average of estimates of four analysts predicts earnings of 60 cents per share for the quarter ended July 31 with an average revenue estimate of two analysts coming in at $116.3 million.

The Bentonville-based buy-here, pay-here auto dealer will host a conference call with senior management at 10 a.m. Thursday. Live audio of the call can be heard by dialing (877) 776-4031, 10 minutes before the call begins. A webcast of the call is available on the company website car-mart.com.

A recording of the call will be available two hours after the call ends and will be available for 30 days. It can be heard by calling (855) 859-2056 with the conference ID number 84667486.

-- John Magsam

Trucker stocks lead state index up 2.22

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 2.22 to 349.23 Tuesday.

"The major averages continued their winning ways on Tuesday as stocks advanced in response to better-than-expected economic data," said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.

Truckers dominated the list of top-performing issues led by USA Truck, P.A.M. Transportation and ArcBest, Williams said.

While P.A.M. Transportation had light volume, ArcBest saw active trading, he said.

Murphy USA set a 52-week high before pulling back slightly at the close, Williams said.

Dillard's Inc. shares rose 1.5 percent in heavier than average volume.

Total volume of the index was 17.2 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business on 08/20/2014

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