Snohomish County’s public companies ended a mixed first quarter in the stock markets Wednesday with a few spectacular gains among biotechnology and medical device stocks.
The tracking stock for CombiMatrix Corp., the Mukilteo-based division of Acacia Research Corp., boasted the largest rise among locally based companies. The share price closed Wednesday at $5.98, more than 78 percent higher than at the start of the year.
Shares in Quinton Cardiology Systems of Bothell closed out the quarter at $11.89 a share for a quarterly gain of 48 percent. Nastech Pharmaceutical Co., also of Bothell, recorded a 37 percent surge in its stock for the first quarter.
Those results were in stark contrast to most of the companies tracked in the Abarim Snohomish County Stock Index. Of the 15 firms in the index, nine ended the quarter on the plus side. But most of the gains were small.
As a whole, the Abarim index, tracked by Edmonds businessman Tim Raetzloff, gained just 2.6 percent for the quarter.
That still bested the major stock indexes, however.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.9 percent for its first losing quarter since the first quarter of 2003. The Nasdaq composite index ended down 0.5 percent for its first losing period since the third quarter of 2002. The Standard &Poor’s 500 gained 1.3 percent.
The county’s largest publicly held company, ICOS Corp. of Bothell, saw its stock lose more than 10 percent during the quarter, closing Wednesday at $36.93.
The stock price rose quickly last fall in anticipation of the U.S. regulatory approval of Cialis, the company’s erectile dysfunction drug. That approval came in late November. ICOS warned investors during this quarter that it may have to spend more heavily than it first estimated on advertising to counter its main rival, Viagra.
EverTrust Financial Group, whose shares lost approximately 14 percent of their value during the first quarter, was the only decliner among the four local bank stocks.
Everett’s Cascade Financial Corp., the parent of Cascade Bank, saw its stock rise only 4 percent, but it ended the quarter with its highest closing price ever, $20.17 a share.
While the first quarter didn’t see as many dramatic gains as the last two quarters of 2003, Raetzloff said there’s little to complain about.
"Over the past 12 months, every single stock in Snohomish County is up," he said, and that includes seven stocks that have gained more than 100 percent since this time last year.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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