Slade’s Ferry 2Q net down 26.2% despite growing assets

SOMERSET, Mass. – Slade’s Ferry Bancorp, parent company of Slade’s Ferry Trust Co., announced Tuesday that its net income for the quarter ending June 30 was $626,000 or 15 cents per diluted share, down 26.2 percent from the same period last year.
For the first six months of 2006, net income was $1.5 million, down 21.3 percent from the $1.9 million in net income earned in the first half of 2005.
The decline was attributed primarily to an increase in non-interest expenses. The bank continued to grow, however, with total consolidated assets increasing to $605.2 million as of June 30, up 3.3 percent since Dec. 31. Deposits grew at a similar rate.
The bank also announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase of up to 5 percent of outstanding stock, or 208,036 shares. “We believe strongly in the fundamental strength of Slade’s Ferry,” President and CEO Mary Lynn Lenz said in a news release. “Buying back our shares is a vote of confidence in our business, our employees and our shareholders.”
Slade’s Ferry is headquartered in Somerset and also has branches in Assonet, Fairhaven, Fall River, New Bedford, Seekonk and Swansea.