Maine stocks best Wall Street Firms based in state outperformed major indexes in 2004

PORTLAND – Stocks of Maine-based companies outperformed the major stock indexes on Wall Street in 2004 for the fifth consecutive year.

The median increase in stock prices of publicly held companies based in Maine was 12.5 percent for the year, according to Maine Securities Corp.

By comparison, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose by 9 percent, the Nasdaq composite index went up by 8.6 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 3.2 percent. The Russell 2000, which tracks smaller company stocks, bested Maine stocks with a 17 percent return.

If somebody had invested $100,000 equally among Maine publicly traded companies at the beginning of 2000, the investment would have grown to $210,066 by the end of 2004, said Brad McCurtain, president of Maine Securities.

A similar investment, excluding dividends, would have fallen to $93,789 in the Dow Jones, to $82,486 in the Standard & Poor’s 500, and to $53,460 in the Nasdaq, he said.

“That tells us that most of the Maine-based companies are financial companies, i.e. banks, or small microcap stocks,” McCurtain said. “And those are the stocks that have done the best the last four or five years.”

Maine Securities tracks the performance of Maine-based companies every year. Last year’s returns were solid, but lagged 2003 when the median return was 40.4 percent and five Maine stocks more than doubled in value.

Among the 15 Maine stocks tracked last year, the top performer was Immucell, a small Portland-based biotechnology company that went up 85.1 percent, McCurtain said.

Commtel, which formerly owned Community Service Telephone Co. in Winthrop before being acquired last year by FairPoint Communications of North Carolina, had the second-best return, at 83 percent, McCurtain said.

Fairchild Semiconductor, whose stock fell nearly 35 percent for the year, was the worst-performing Maine-based company after more than doubling in value in 2003, McCurtain said.

First National Lincoln, the holding company for First National Bank of Damariscotta, was down 30.1 percent, he added.