Liberty National Stock Up 172.5% in 1995

Amazing what a small rebound in the economy and a big acquisition price for a bank can do to a stock.

Those who held onto their shares of Liberty National Bank in Huntington Beach for all of last year saw the value soar 172.5%--the biggest annual percentage gain of any community bank stock in the nation for 1995.

Liberty’s stock rose from $5 a share at the beginning of the year to $13.625 at the end. But the bank’s 600 shareholders will get more: In mid-August, the bank tentatively agreed to be sold to a company led by an investor group called Dartmouth Capital Group for $14.80 a share, or about $14.47 million.

The deal is expected to close March 28, and the bank will continue to operate under the same name.

“Orange County is finally getting out from underneath the cloud of recession, and we had a pretty good year overall, but the merger is certainly the major factor in the stock price movement,” said Philip S. Inglee, the bank’s president. “We were at the right place at the right time.”

The bank’s stock started out last year at $5 a share and fell to $4 a share in February before slowly climbing, according to a survey by the American Banker, an industry publication. The stock continued to gain through the summer, hitting $12.50 a share as rumors spread about an acquisition.

Meantime, Liberty, which had lost a total of more than $2.6 million in the previous two years, was on its way to earning about $1 million last year. It holds $148 million in loans and other assets.

Liberty and Dartmouth, a limited partnership based outside Manchester, N.H., reached a definitive agreement in October, and the bank’s shareholders approved the sale last month.