What Happened?
Shares of regional bank Washington Trust Bancorp (NASDAQ:WASH) jumped 5% in the pre-market session after the company reported third-quarter 2026 financial results, exceeding Wall Street’s sales and earnings expectations.
According to a company press release, net interest margin expanded to 2.84%. Deposits reached $5.4 billion for the period, while total revenue increased 14.6% year on year to $64.96 million. Both revenue and earnings per share came in ahead of Wall Street consensus estimates. For regional banks, net interest margin expansion is a crucial indicator of profitability that measures the spread between lending yields and funding expenses. Widening margins paired with deposit growth suggested healthy pricing power and core balance sheet stability, bolstering investor sentiment.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Washington Trust Bancorp’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 5 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 6 months ago when the stock dropped 16.4% on the news that the company reported first-quarter 2026 results that fell short of Wall Street's expectations.
The company announced adjusted earnings of $0.66 per share and revenue of $57.83 million. Both key figures missed analysts' consensus estimates, overshadowing the year-on-year growth in both metrics. While revenue increased by 10.6% and earnings per share rose from $0.61 in the same quarter last year, investors focused on the miss against projections, signaling a weaker-than-anticipated performance for the Rhode Island-based bank.
Washington Trust Bancorp is up 33.8% since the beginning of the year, and at $38.59 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $40.26 from September 2026. Despite the year-to-date gain, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Washington Trust Bancorp’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $698.24.
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