Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of National Penn Bancshares (Nasdaq: NPBC) jumped more than 10% today, after it reported third-quarter earnings results.

So what: National Penn earned $0.08 per share, versus a $0.04 loss in the same quarter last year. CEO Scott Fainor attributed the gain to improving credit quality and a reduction in loan-loss provisions. National Penn has been taking advantage of credit markets as they thawed over the past two years to sell off its non-performing loans.

Now what: Improving loan performance has been a big story at a lot of banks these days -- Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) have all experienced this same effect. If you think the worst is behind National Penn and profitability is ahead, its 0.87 price-to-book value multiple begins to look interesting should its capital position improve.

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