LITTLE ROCK — Shares of Little Rock based Acxiom Corp. saw the best return among the largest public companies in Arkansas in the third quarter, which ended Friday, rising almost 21 percent.
Acxiom, an interactive marketing-services provider, is benefiting from the data revolution, said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.
“The Acxiom data-mining assets are becoming more valuable as technologies have become available to allow better use of focused target marketing strategies,” Williams said.
Harrison-based First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas was close behind with a gain of 20.6 percent among the Arkansas Index stocks, the 16 largest public companies in the state.
For the first two quarters of 2012, First Federal had the best stock performance of any of the Arkansas Index companies. First Federal led in the first quarter with an almost 58 percent return. Its second quarter was also the best in the state with an 18.8 percent improvement.
For the first nine months of the year, First Federal’s stock is up about 126 percent, more than double the return of Acxiom over the same period.
A $1,000 investment in First Federal at the close of last year would be worth almost $2,262 as of Friday.
First Federal has benefited from continued low interest rates and from an economy that is no longer deteriorating, Williams said.
“And the new management team brought in about a year ago is generating synergies that have been reflected in their stock,” Williams said.
First Federal lost $35 million in 2008-2010. In May last year, a newly formed investment firm, Little Rock-based Bear State Financial, paid $55 million for about 82 percent of First Federal’s stock. Bear State is owned by former Alltel Corp. executives Joe and Scott Ford and others.
The bank has been under federal regulatory censure since May 2010.
First Federal also has reaped savings from the closure of three full-service branches in Northwest Arkansas, Williams said.
Arkansas-based banks performed well in the third quarter. Besides First Federal, Bank of the Ozark was up almost 15 percent, Home BancShares rose about 11 percent and Simmons First National climbed almost 5 percent.
“I think bank stocks are doing well because the general economic conditions have been improving,” said Garland Binns, a Little Rock banking attorney. “That directly relates to better performance for banks. And I think that investors, some who may have been on the sidelines, have made decisions to go back into the market because they believe market conditions will continue to improve.”
Overall, 12 of the Arkansas stocks finished up for the quarter and four were down.
Shares of Arkansas Best, a Fort Smith-based trucking company, fell 37 percent in the third quarter, the worst performance of the Arkansas stocks.
“Arkansas Best is hamstrung by a higher cost structure than their union and non-union peers due to inconsistent labor contracts and pension expenses,” Williams said. “The opinion that a resolution to these issues is outside of management’s control has continued to impact its stock price.”
Another trucker, Van Buren-based USA Truck, lost almost 23 percent for the quarter, the next-worst performance in the state.
USA Truck lost $3.5 million in the second quarter.
The economy and a less than-optimal freight network led to weak operational execution for USA Truck, Williams said.
“Those inefficiencies resulted in trouble hiring drivers as well as driver retention issues and were reflected in an unmanned tractor count of 12.2 percent,” Williams said.
Business, Pages 31 on 09/29/2012