M&T Bank Corp.'s first-quarter earnings more than doubled, beating analysts' estimates, as the regional bank's credit-loss provision and net charge-offs declined.
Shares were up 0.9% to $84.99 premarket. As of Friday's close, the stock had risen 40% in the past year.
Chief Financial Officer Rene F. Jones said the results were stronger largely because of lower credit costs and a widening net-interest margin.
M&T, which operates throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, has reported solid results throughout the financial crisis as it pushed its community-banking model. The long-time Warren Buffett pick has lowered its loan-loss provisions and increased total deposits recently.
M&T reported a profit of $151 million, or $1.15 a share, up from $64.2 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast earnings of 99 cents.
The company's provision for credit losses was $105 million, down from $158 million a year earlier and $145 million in the prior quarter. Net charge-offs, or loans the bank doesn't think it can collect on, were 0.74% of average loans, down from 0.83% and 1.03%, respectively.
But nonperforming assets, those near default, increased 30% to $1.44 billion from $1.1 billion in the prior year and were mostly flat from the fourth quarter.
Total deposits were 12% higher, at $47.54 billion, as of March 31.
