Tuesday's Financial Winners & Losers

Everest Re and Sterling Bancshares both climb on increased first-quarter profits.

Author:: Sarina Penn
Publish date:: Apr 24, 2007 4:29 PM EDT

Everest Re and Sterling Bancshares both climb on increased first-quarter profits.

Updated from 1:39 p.m. EDT

Financial stocks underperformed the broader market again Tuesday under an avalanche of mixed earnings.

Everest Re

delivered one of the day's better showings; the insurer jumped 6.8% to $103.30 after posting a first-quarter profit of $267.9 million, or $4.13 a share, which flew past Wall Street's $3.07 estimate, according to Thomson Financial.

Sterling Bancshares

( SBIB) gained 7.6% to $11.63 after saying first-quarter per-share earnings climbed 2 cents from last year to 17 cents.

New Jersey-based insurer

Chubb

(CB) - Get Report

handily topped

estimates as well. Operating income was 7.7% higher at $1.53 a share, 15 cents better than the Street's consensus. Share rose 95 cents, or 1.8%, to $54.71.

Among other financial names lifted by positive first-quarter earnings were insurer

PartnerRe

(PRE)

, which added 5.1% to $73.15;

Reinsurance Group of America

(RGA) - Get Report

, up 4.8% at $62.60; and Ohio-based bank

FirstMerit

(FMER)

, which rose 4.9% to $21.29.

On the flip side, online broker

TradeStation

( TRAD) was one of the sector's worst percentage losers, sliding 8.7% after saying it will probably earn 17 cents to 18 cents a share in the second quarter vs. analysts' 20-cent per-share expectations. Shares lost $1.17 to $12.28.

Commodities exchange

Chicago Mercantile Exchange

(CME) - Get Report

, sank on 2.9% to $531.30 on

lower-than-expected revenue

, despite topping income estimates, and both

LaBranche

( LAB) and

Sallie Mae

(SLM) - Get Report

missed bottom-line targets. LaBranche, a specialist firm, was off 7.3% to $8.30; student lender Sallie Mae slipped 61 cents to $53.74.

Elsewhere,

Brown & Brown

(BRO) - Get Report

fell after saying that nearly half of its 19.4% year-over-year profit jump was due to a large investment cash-in. The insurance broker's first-quarter bottom line beat targets by 2 cents as a result, but shares fell $1.95, or 6.9%, to $26.17.

The

NYSE

Financial Sector Index was down 0.4% to 9756.04; the KBW Bank Index was down 0.4% to 115.74.