Proud to Be 'Boring' at U.S. Bancorp

The shorter the quarterly conference call, the better the bank.

At least that is how Richard K. Davis, president and chief executive of U.S. Bancorp (USB), is interpreting his company's third-quarter call, which lasted a little more than half an hour and included questions from just six research analysts. About three dozen analysts cover the $352 billion-asset company.

"Maybe by the lack of questions I hope you know that this is a pretty standard, almost boring quarter and a pretty boring bank," Davis said, as he concluded the call. "We are pretty proud of that, and I think you can count on us to continue to give you guidance in public settings to help you be close to where you expect us to be."

The company reported earnings of 74 cents per share in the third quarter, matching consensus estimates, according to a research note from Sandler O'Neill. Sandler also expected the company to earn 74 cents per share.

Of course, conference calls have no prescribed length. The duration can also be determined by the things like the number of analysts who cover the company and the number of companies that are reporting that day.

Then again, it is probably no accident that the Citigroup (NYSE: C) analyst call on Monday lasted one hour and 40 minutes — and that was the day before its chief executive, Vikram Pandit, resigned. And the Bank of America (BAC) call on Wednesday, which covered some complex litigation and accounting costs, lasted as long as Citi's.