Thursday's Financial Winners & Losers: T. Rowe Price

The asset management services provider saw a solid rise in revenue in the first quarter.
By Debra Borchardt ,

T. Rowe Price (TROW) - Get Report reported a solid quarter Thursday as other financials also came up strong.

T. Rowe's profit jumped 6% in the first quarter, driving shares up $6.36, or 11.8%, to $60.24. Other investment banks shot up but not based on earnings. Instead, the movement stemmed from a report by an analyst suggesting that the problems in capital markets were reaching an end.

Merrill Lynch

( MER) jumped $3.18 to $48.09,

Lehman Brothers

( LEH) increased $2.69 to $46.38 and

Jefferies Group

(JEF) - Get Report

rose $2.11 to $16.89.

World Acceptance Corp.

(WRLD) - Get Report

, a midsized consumer finance company, rose $4.65 to $35.10 after reporting that its quarterly profits came in above analysts' expectations. Income jumped 16% on an increase in demand for the company's tax preparation services.

In other earnings news,

Barclays

(BCS) - Get Report

, the third-largest bank in the U.K., managed to avoid the huge losses recorded by

UBS

and

Credit Suisse

, but its profits were well below last year's. The bank began the day trading in negative territory, only to recover halfway through and move up to $36.74 a gain of 64 cents.

The NYSE Financial Sector index charged ahead 165.26 to 7,641.

But it wasn't so positive over at

Sovereign Bancorp

( SOV), which got a credit rating downgrade by Moody's as a result of first-quarter losses. Additionally, a Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst cut his estimates and price target from $8 to $6. The stock crumbled 10.3% to $7.14.

Reinsurance company

Transatlantic Holdings

( TRH) saw its profits climb, but its shares fell when it missed Wall Street forecasts. Profit grew 8% due to an absence of significant claims for catastrophes, but shares fell $1.10 to $65.50.

Another bank got rocked by the mortgage meltdown.

Virginia Commerce

(VCBI)

saw its net income plunge 36% from a year ago. Nonperforming assets and overdue loans ballooned in the quarter to $25.2 million from $3.9 million a year ago. The stock sold off 16% to $7.49.

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