Local stocks as a whole outperformed Wall Street in 2011, but most of those gains came from a Folsom company that's moving to Texas.

Waste Connections Inc. stock was on its way to a 20 percent gain when it announced last month that it was relocating its corporate headquarters to The Woodlands, Texas.

Thanks to the company's stock market gains, an index of local stock prices compiled by The Bee increased 11.5 percent last year.

That compares with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up just 5.5 percent last year, and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index, which was flat.

Excluding Waste Connection's increase, local stocks would have seen a 14.2 percent decline in 2011.

"Waste Connections has been one of the biggest success stories in this region," said Jonathan Lederer, president of locally based Lederer Private Wealth Management LLC.

"There's absolutely no positive spin that you can put on the fact that this company is leaving."

The trash hauler isn't the only public company in Sacramento that's changing its mailing address or its corporate logo.

Local medical software provider Ophthalmic Imaging Systems was acquired in August by a Chicago competitor, Merge Healthcare Inc.

In December, InsWeb Corp. of Rancho Cordova sold the bulk of its online insurance quote business to Florida-based Bankrate Inc. Assets not included in the deal will became part of a smaller Rancho Cordova company known as Internet Patents Corp.

Overall, six of the region's 11 publicly traded companies saw their stock prices rise last year.

The largest percentage increase was posted by Pacific Ethanol Inc., whose stock price was up more than 47 percent last year.

The local ethanol producer's shares benefited from a seven-to-one reverse stock split in June. The company also bought back a large chunk of its ownership stake in production plants that it lost during its 2009-2010 bankruptcy reorganization.

Steady sales growth helped lift the share price of Roseville-based Surewest Communications, which increased 12.4 percent last year. SPI Solar, also of Roseville, saw its stock price jump 13.8 percent.

SPI, formerly known as Solar Power Inc., received a $30 million capital infusion from LDK Solar of China during the first quarter.

In June, the company announced a three-year contract with a New Jersey renewable energy developer, KDC Solar LLC, to develop and finance up to $1.2 billion in new solar projects in New York and New Jersey.

Losses at Thermogenesis Corp. fueled a 79.8 percent decline in the Rancho Cordova-based medical equipment company's stock, while continued sluggishness in advertising and circulation revenues contributed to a 48.8 percent drop in the share price of The McClatchy Co., the nation's third-largest newspaper chain and owner of The Bee.

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