Aug. 23--EAGLE Traders added heartily to the stock price of this week's eagle, which had added to its earnings and its assets in recent weeks.

Add it all up, and Southwest Bancorp Inc., parent of Stillwater National Bank, was the strongest performer among Oklahoma's publicly traded stocks over the past five days. OKSB shares jumped 21 percent last week to close at $14.05. That's the highest closing price for the stock since November.

In June, Southwest Bancorp snapped up the deposits of the failed First National Bank of Anthony, Kan., for its Bank of Kansas subsidiary. A couple of weeks ago, Southwest Bancorp reported second-quarter profits of $4.9 million, up more than 16 percent over the year-ago quarter. Those earnings received a strong boost from the FDIC-assisted acquisition of the Kansas bank, and nearly $2 million related to the resolution of "a large problem credit," the company said.

Now the bank holding company will seek to add those gains.

BEAGLE This week's beagle felt its misery at Monday's opening bell, and spent the remainder of the week in a funk.

Shares of GMX Resources Inc. lost 51 cents from its Aug. 14 closing price at the launch of trading Monday. In the succeeding days, traders shaved another 19 cents off the price of GMXR.

Shares of the Oklahoma City energy business finished the week off 5.7 percent, closing Friday at $11.61.

It's nothing to howl about, but it doesn't make a pup feel frisky either.

Like most of our local energy concerns, current earnings pale in comparison to the year-ago quarter.

Anyone remember oil at $147 a barrel?

Eagle & Beagle is a weekly look at the state's high-performing (eagle) and low-performing (beagle) stocks by Business Writer Don Mecoy.

-----

To see more of The Oklahoman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsok.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-NMS:OKSB, NASDAQ-NMS:GMXR,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.