How stocks in local banks fared since the recession

Banks big and small suffered through the last recession.

Gone are the likes of Frontier Bank and Cascade Bank in Everett and City Bank of Lynnwood.

The banks that survived, for the most part, are thriving now.

Take one measurement: stock price.

Bank stock locally, regionally and nationally has rebounded like most of the overall market since the end of the recession.

What has been called the Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that tracks recessions and expansions.

During the recession, bank stock prices plummeted in almost every case. Since then, banks have solidified and seen a steady increase in stock.

A selection of banks with a Snohomish County presence illustrates the trend. Banks have seen a steady march upward in stock prices from last day of business at the end of the recession, June 30, 2009, to the first day of business last month, Oct. 2.

Take, for instance, Heritage Bank, whose holding company, Heritage Financial Corp., trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol HFWA.

The Olympia-based bank closed at $11.95 a share on the last day of the recession. Last month, its stock was trading at $29.65 a share. That’s a 148 percent increase in less than eight years.

Umpqua Holdings, the holding company for Portland, Oregon-based Umpqua Bank, which has branches in Snohomish County, saw its stock price increase from $7.76 to $19.68 over the same period. It’s an increase of 153 percent.

Umpqua trades under the ticker symbol UMPQ also on the Nasdaq.

Banner Bank, with holding company Banner Corp., saw its stock price increase from $26.74 a share at the end of the recession to $61.69 at the beginning of last month.

That’s more than a 130 percent increase. The Walla Walla-headquartered bank trades under the ticker symbol BANR, also on Nasdaq.

Columbia Bank is a Tacoma-headquartered bank with branches in the county. The bank had its stock prices increase from $10.23 a share to $42.57 over the same period. That’s up more than three times as much — 316 percent. The bank stock is traded as COLB on Nasdaq.

Mountlake Terrace-based 1st Security Bank wasn’t traded publicly during the recession. It went public on July 10, 2012. Still, the bank has seen a steady growth post-recession. The bank’s stock on the first day it was traded closed at $10.01 a share. The bank traded for $51.18 a share on the first business day of last month.

That’s an increase of more than 411 percent in just more than five years. The bank trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FSBW.

Everett-based Mountain Pacific Bank and Coastal Community Bank are privately held and not traded on the stock market.

Not every bank with a presence in the county has seen an increase. Opus Bank began trading on the Nasdaq with the ticker symbol OPB on April 16, 2014. The close-of-day stock price was $29.53. That went down to $24.25 a share on the first day of business last month.

Some of the national banks with large presences in the county have also seen stocks surge during the same time period.

Bank of America, traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BAC, saw its stock price increase from $13.20 a share to $25.62, according to statistics from Yahoo Finance. That’s a 94 percent increase. The bank is headquartered in Charlottesville, North Carolina.

Wells Fargo saw its stock price climb from $24.26 to $55.47 over the same time frame. That’s a 128 percent increase. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo also trades on the New York Stock Exchange, under the WFC ticker symbol.

U.S. Bank, headquartered in Minneapolis, saw its stock increase 198 percent, from $17.92 on May 29, 2009, to $53.44 a share Oct. 2. The bank trades under the ticker symbol USB on the New York Stock Exchange.

The overall market has rebounded during the same time period. The Nasdaq Composite went up 255 percent during the same time period. The S&P 500 Index went up 175 percent.