Thursday's Financial Winners & Losers

Opteum's(OPX) financial services unit, a mortgage lender, has acquired the assets of privately held Aclarian Mortgage. Aclarian is a retail mortgage lender based in Sarasota, Fla. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Opteum will now have a total of five branches in Florida, including two in Sarasota. Nationwide, Opteum operates 37 branches. Shares of Opteum, a real estate investment trust, were down 4 cents at $8.73.

Lakeland Bancorp(LBAI) ticked higher after the company reported its latest quarterly results, declared a stock dividend and set a buyback. The company had second-quarter earnings of $5.1 million and 23 cents a share, essentially equivalent with the results for the same period in 2005.

The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of 10 cents a share, and along with that, a 5% stock dividend that will be paid Aug. 16 to shareholders of record July 31. Lakeland Bancorp announced a stock buyback program covering up to 500,000 shares during the next 12 months. Shares of Lakeland rose 14 cents, or 1%, to $14.51.

Cowen & Co.(COWN) was trading lower after pricing its initial public offering below the expected range. The Societe Generale unit priced 11.2 million shares at $16 each, but it had hoped for $19 to $21 a share. Lately, shares of Cowen were down 10 cents, or 0.6%, at $15.90.

Shares of insurance provider Progressive(PGR) were on the decline following the company's earnings report for the June quarter. The company had earnings of $400.4 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with $394.3 million, or 49 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for a profit of 52 cents.

Net premiums written rose 2% to $3.68 billion for the quarter. Progressive was falling 52 cents, or 2.1%, to $24.56.