Boeing, Itron Post Strong Gains Local Stocks Followed Trends Set By National Markets In ‘95
Boeing Co. was up, up, up and mining was down as stocks of companies with Spokane area operations tracked prices for their respective industries in 1995.
Investors launched Boeing shares 66 percent based on new orders for airplanes from resurgent airlines. The stock gained altitude despite one of the longest strikes in company history, which idled 300 Spokane workers.
Boeing’s performance, along with that of the 29 other stocks used to calculate the Dow Jones industrial average, helped push that market barometer up almost 34 percent for the year.
The other big local winner was Itron, the maker of automated and remote meter-reading equipment. The shares, lifted by soaring sales and profits, closed up 67 percent for the year.
Another company that suffered a strike, Kaiser Aluminum, also had a good year. Prices for aluminum have stabilized at profitable levels. And the Bonneville Power Administration has proposed new rates that should hold the cost of electricity, a major element of production, in check for at least the next five years.
As a group, bank and thrift stocks checked in with solid results almost across the board.
Newcomer United Security Bancorporation went public in May at $8.25 per share. In August, the holding company reported a 10 percent stock dividend and still managed to finish the year at $13.75.
The largest Northwest-based bank, Portland-based U.S. Bancorp, flexed its muscle by acquiring West One Bancorp. The response by investors helped the stock finish the year 49 percent ahead of 1994’s year-end price.
Washington Mutual Savings Bank rocketed 71 percent, reflecting expectations for lower interest rates and higher mortgage activity.
Sterling Financial climbed 34 percent, boosted in part by the possibility the thrift might receive millions from the successful resolution of litigation it filed against the federal government.
If savings repositories thrived in 1995, retailers died. Losses ranged from a modest 3 percent by Nordstrom to a precipitous 60 percent by Ernst Home Centers.
After a breathless 1995, area brokers and investment advisers said they expect more restrained progress on Wall Street this year.
At PaineWebber, Travis Prewitt said the Dow Jones industrial average should advance another 10 percent to around 5,750, based on continued low inflation and an overall market price-to-earnings ratio of 19.
A sustained impasse over the federal budget or disappointing corporate earnings could lower results, he said, but inflation remains the key.
Gary Shea, a member of the investment planning group at D.A. Davidson & Co., said that firm also is positive about the year. The productivity of U.S. corporations has vastly improved their global competitiveness, he said.
Shea said the most likely source of unrest would be an unforeseen event such as a blowup in Bosnia.
Phil Sandberg of Sandberg Securities predicted an orderly start to 1996. And some of the volatility displayed in 1995 should be absent, he said.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Local stocks mixed in 1995
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NO YEAR-END LISTINGS The Spokesman-Review will not publish year-end stock listings this year. Among other sources for the listings, The Wall Street Journal published listings for the stock exchanges Wednesday and will publish a quarterly mutual fund summary Friday.