Hart Capital Management Inc., a Spokane-based investment firm, says the combined stock value of 12 publicly traded Inland Northwest companies, as measured in an overall index it compiles, fell 5.7 percent in the third quarter, compared with the year-earlier quarter.

The index’s performance was well below that of the S&P 500, which increased 0.6 percent during the latest quarter. The index beat the Russell 2000 index, however, which fell by 7.7 percent.

So far this year, the Hart Capital index has risen 0.8 percent, while the S&P 500 climbed 6.7 percent and the Russell index declined by 5.4 percent, Hart Capital says in its quarterly report published last month. 

The strongest performing stocks in the Hart index in the latest quarter were Sandpoint-based Intermountain Community Bancorp, Northwest Bancorporation, and Red Lion Hotels Corp., with their stock prices growing by 15.1 percent, 5.6 percent, and 3.8 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the weakest performer of the 12 companies was Hecla Mining Co., with a stock price decline of 28.1 percent, due to weakness in the commodity markets, Hart Capital says. 

Several other companies showed third-quarter declines in stock price, including Ambassadors Group, down 19.7 percent; Avista Corp., down 8.9 percent; Itron Inc., down 3.1 percent; and Spokane-based Clearwater Paper Corp., down 2.6 percent.

For the Inland Northwest Index, Hart Capital uses a methodology similar to that of the S&P 500 to track companies’ stock value.

For the first nine months of the year, the investment company says Intermountain Community Bancorp led the index with an increase of 19 percent, due heavily to its merger with Tacoma-based Columbia Banking System. Hart says the merger of the two in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $121.5 million likely will close during the current fourth quarter. Clearwater Paper showed an increase of 14.5 percent during the same period. 

In a trailing 12-month index summary, Coeur d’Alene-based Idaho Independent Bank led the index with an impressive 32.3 percent stock price gain. Both Clearwater Paper and Intermountain Community Bancorp, up 25.8 percent and 22.9 percent, respectively, beat the S&P 500 gain of 17.3 percent over the same time period.

Separately, in what it calls the Inland Northwest Composite, Hart Capital tracks the same companies’ combined market value, or capitalization, which is share price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares. 

As of Sept. 30, the composite had fallen $519.3 million, or 6 percent, from a year earlier, to $8.15 billion. Year to date, the composite has fallen $2.1 billion, but it would have been up $65 million without the drag effect of removing Sterling Financial Corp. and Coldwater Creek Inc. in the second quarter due to Sterling’s merger with Umpqua Holdings Corp. and Coldwater Creek’s bankruptcy. 

Hart Capital, which is located at 601 W. Main in downtown Spokane, is a privately owned wealth and asset management investment firm with clients located around the Inland Northwest. It started issuing its quarterly Inland Northwest index and composite report in 2006. 

Other companies that Hart Capital tracks include WTB Financial Corp. and Potlatch Corp., both based in Spokane, and Spokane Valley-based Key Tronic Corp.