Truist boosts net income, sets higher profitability target

• Key insight: Truist delivered a net income uptick for the first quarter and announced a higher profitability target.
  
• Supporting data: The $544 billion-asset bank, which achieved a return on tangible common equity of 13.8% during the first quarter, laid out a new long-term target for the metric, saying it expects to hit 16% to 18% in the coming years.
  
• Forward look: The bank also boosted its share buyback expectations for this year, saying it now plans to repurchase about $5 billion worth of common shares, up from the $4 billion before.

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Truist Financial reported a boost in net income for the first quarter, reflecting an increase in average loans and a pickup in fee income, including a surge in investment banking activity.

Net income for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank totaled $1.48 billion for the period ending March 31, up 17.5% from the same quarter last year. Earnings per diluted share were $1.09, beating analysts' predictions by nine cents, according to S&P Capital IQ.

The $549 billion-asset bank said it's been executing on its strategic priorities and set a new, higher target Friday for a key profitability metric. It also bumped up its 2026 share buyback plan by $1 billion.

The new long-term target for return on tangible common equity "reflects both the progress we've made thus far and our confidence in the durability and scalability of our strategy," CEO Bill Rogers said in a press release.

For the quarter, Truist delivered firmwide revenues of $5.15 billion, up about 5% compared with the same quarter in 2025. Average total loans grew 7% year over year to $329 billion, driven by a 4% year-over-year increase in average loans in the consumer and small business banking segment and a 9% year-over-year hike in average loans in the wholesale banking segment.

Net interest income totaled $3.6 billion for the quarter, up 2.6% from the year-ago quarter.

Fee income of $1.6 billion rose 11.6% year over year. Investment banking and trading income was a major driver, improving 36.3% during the quarter. Lending-related fees surged 24.2% year over year, while mortgage banking income increased by 23.1%.

Noninterest expenses of $3 billion were up 2.6% year over year, due to higher personnel costs such as increased salaries, incentives and employee benefits related to hiring, the bank said.

During the quarter, Truist repurchased $1.1 billion shares of common stock. In December 2025, its board authorized the repurchase of up to $10 billion of common stock with no expiration date.

It expects to buy back $5 billion shares of common stock throughout all of 2026, it said Friday. That's up from January, when management said it would buy around $4 billion for the year.

Truist said it will buy back around $1.2 billion of shares during the second quarter.

The bank said it would aim to achieve a return on tangible common equity of 16% to 18% over the long term. It did not immediately define "long term" on Friday, but it did say that it remains on track to achieve its previously-stated goal of 15% return on tangible common equity in all of 2027.

In September 2024, Truist had said that it was aiming to achieve a "mid-teens" return on tangible common equity over the next three years.

For the first quarter, that metric came in at 13.8%.

Also during the quarter, Truist's private wealth business announced that financial advisors for Truist Investment Services are now able to offer two federally regulated spot bitcoin exchange‑traded funds, sponsored by Fidelity and BlackRock. The ETFs are also available through Truist Trade, an offering for clients interested in self-directed real-time trading, the bank said in a press release.

Truist also announced several new hires during the three-month period, including the hiring of Matthew Miller as managing director and head of mergers and acquisitions for Truist Securities. Miller most recently worked at Jefferies, where he was global head of health M&A, Truist said.

In March, Truist announced a data access partnership with the data aggregator Plaid. The agreement offers Truist a way to expand its open banking capabilities.