Branch sales boosted First Niagara Financial Group Inc.'s fourth-quarter net income by 33% from the year earlier, to $27.8 million, the company said Thursday.
Earnings per share increased 42%, to 27 cents. The $8 billion-asset Lockport, N.Y., company said several one-time items affected its results.
In the fourth quarter it recorded a $21.6 million gain from branch sales, a $5.6 million loss from restructuring its investment portfolio, and a $2.3 million loss related to a business customer's deposit relationship. (It also had a $3.3 million severance-related charge in the fourth quarter of 2006.)Excluding all one-time items, First Niagara's fourth-quarter net income decreased 15%, to $19.6 million, and earnings per share fell 9.5%, to 19 cents. The company attributed the decline to a "constrained revenue environment."
