State Street Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit plunged 84% on charges, but adjusted results topped analysts' expectations.
Impacts related to the sale of mortgage- and asset-backed securities and plans to reduce its work force by 1,400 employees and consolidate its real estate through moves such as lease terminations and sublease arrangements walloped its latest result. It sees the moves helping it over the long term.
But the institutional money manager has seen results improve of late even as it's under pressure from historically low interest rates. Rival Bank of New York Mellon Corp. earlier Wednesday reported its bottom line beat analysts' views, and results from Northern Trust Corp. are on tap for later in the day.
State Street reported a profit of $81 million, or 16 cents a share, down from $498 million, or $1 a share, a year earlier. Excluding items such as the securities sale and workforce cuts, earnings rose to 87 cents from 71 cents. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently expected an 86-cent profit.
Revenue dropped 10% to $2.04 billion but was up 9.6% at $2.28 billion on an operating basis, topping analysts' $2.14 billion average estimate.
Assets under management increased 3% to $2.01 trillion and were up 2.6% from the prior period.
Shares closed Tuesday at $50.06 and were inactive premarket. The stock has gained 16% over the past year.
