Northwest Bancshares Inc. in Warren, Pa., said this week that its second-quarter earnings were down 7% from the same period last year, to $15 million, due largely to costs related to an employee stock-benefit plan.
On a per-share basis, Northwest earned 15 cents, the same as a year ago and a penny shy of estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Net interest income rose 4.6% to $66.7 million from a year earlier, and Northwest's loan portfolio grew $2.6 million during the quarter. But the provision for loan losses rose 6% to $8.4 million, and noninterest income fell 1.8% to $15.3 million.
The holding company for Northwest Savings Bank closed three offices in Florida in the quarter and now operates 169 offices in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Maryland.
