Investopedia: Bank Of The Ozarks Making The Best Of Things

No bank has gone through the housing crash and credit crisis totally unscathed, but it clearly has not harmed all banks to the same degree. Although government-mandated changes to key aspects of the banking industry like capital requirements, lending standards and fee income will alter the profitability of banks going forward, some banks have been able to use the crisis to expand and gather assets. (To read more about how banking has changed, see The Evolution Of Banking.)

Bank of the Ozarks (Nasdaq:OZRK) was a very interesting small-cap bank before the crisis, but a combination of savvy management and FDIC-assisted acquisitions have left the company in good shape for the coming years.

Solid-Looking Numbers for Q1
Bank of the Ozarks has profited from the oxymoronic policy of aggressive conservatism. That in turn has led to unusually low credit losses and non-performing assets, as well as surprisingly high net interest margin. At the same time, it is hard to ignore that the bank's performance has been boosted by the contributions of acquired businesses.

For the first quarter, OZRK saw fully-taxed net interest income rise about 33% on an annual basis (to $36.1 million). On that basis, net interest margin rose to 5.61% from 4.99% - a level that is well above the norm and even high-end performers like Westamerica Bancorp (Nasdaq:WABC), BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) and First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRU).


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