What happened
Small California lender Bank of Marin (BMRC 1.13%) was surely wishing this week would come to a close. The company's share price was down by more than 13% as of Friday before market open, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. A quarterly earnings miss and general investor wariness on regional and local banks were the key reasons for this decline.
So what
Bank of Marin's no-good week kicked off Monday morning before market open with its first-quarter earnings release.
For the period, revenue for the bank totaled just under $37.3 million, which was 12% higher year over year. However, net income slipped, dropping to a bit over $9.4 million ($0.59 per share) from the year-ago quarter's nearly $10.5 million.
This shook out to a mixed quarter for Bank of Marin. Its revenue topped the average analyst estimate of $34.5 million, but its bottom line fell below the collective $0.66 projection.
A period of elevated interest rates was no friend of the bank. In its earnings release, it attributed the earnings dip to "higher interest expense reflecting higher market interest rates on a lagged basis."
Now what
Yet investors are more concerned with the deposit bases of smaller banks. And while Bank of Marin's isn't crumbling, it has eroded somewhat lately. The company's total deposits stood at $3.25 billion as of March 31, down more than $322 million from the $3.57 billion it held at the end of 2022.
So while Bank of Marin's results weren't disastrous, they weren't particularly impressive either. Also, it doesn't help that the company operates in the same general area as -- and to a degree has a similar customer profile to -- failed lender Silicon Valley Bank.
