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A few bright lights among area stocks

By HELEN HUNTLEY
Published December 30, 2006

Tampa Bay stocks closed out a so-so year Friday, leaving a lot of shareholders looking wistfully at the 16 percent gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

"Florida public companies have had a tough year this year from a profitability standpoint," said Michael Poole of PCE Investment Bankers in Winter Park. The firm tracks an index of small Florida stocks, including a dozen from the Tampa Bay area.

"If you look back over the last five years, this is the first year that they didn't beat any of the major indexes," he said. The PCE Florida Index was up 5.8 percent for the year through Thursday. That was less than half the 14.1 percent gain in the Russell Microcap Index, which PCE uses as a benchmark. The Florida index got a boost from banking and finance stocks, but technology stocks lost nearly a third of their value and lackluster returns for manufacturing, services and consumer stocks were a drag on results.

Most Tampa Bay and Florida stocks are small companies with a large base of local shareholders. Poole said their muted performance may be a reflection of developing problems in the economy. "There have been studies that say these small microcap stocks flow in the biorhythms of the economy around them," he said.

In the Tampa Bay area, winners and losers were almost evenly split. The median stock in the Times' universe of 31 companies was Aerosonic Corp., with a gain of 2.5 percent. Half did better and half did worse than the manufacturer of aircraft parts.

Fast-growing WellCare Health Plans produced the stellar performance of the year, gaining 68.7 percent. The Tampa company, which runs managed care plans for Medicare and Medicaid, expects to hit $3.7-billion in revenue this year, making it one of Tampa Bay's largest companies.

The other Tampa Bay company turning in a knock-your-socks-off performance this year: Quality Distribution, a Tampa trucking company. Investors apparently like the new management team and the record earnings, driving the stock up 67.1 percent.

The biggest disappointment of the year was Jabil Circuit. The global electronics manufacturer often has ranked among the bay area's top performers, but this year it lost a third of its value. Jabil said it will have to restate last year's earnings and has delayed release of current financial reports because of problems related to accounting for options.

Among the other large companies with noteworthy results: Global Imaging, a Tampa office products company, was up 26.8 percent, and Raymond James Financial Services of St. Petersburg, up 22.1 percent.

The bay area's largest company by revenue, Tech Data Corp., was down 4.4 percent. Restaurant chain OSI Restaurant Partners, which plans to go private, also lost 4.4 percent on the year.

Helen Huntley can be reached at hhuntley@sptimes.com or 727893-8230.

[Last modified December 30, 2006, 00:01:21]