U.S. Bancorp's fourth-quarter profit jumped 82% as the latest results were driven by the bank's growth in net interest income and fee revenue.
Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Davis also credited company's expanding balance sheet and recent investments in its branch network for the profit gains. Results edged analysts' expectations.
U.S. Bancorp has in many ways weathered the financial crisis better than its bigger banking peers. It hasn't suffered the sky-high loan losses that other lenders have endured, and the bank used that relative strength to buy up smaller, troubled banks.
The company reported a profit of $602 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $330 million, or 15 cents, a year earlier. In the most recent period, earnings were cut by 18 cents because of $278 million for credit-loss provisions in excess of charge-offs and a net $158 million in securities losses, while the previous period included a 34-cent reduction mostly from credit-loss provisions.
Net revenue jumped 21% to $4.38 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast earnings of 29 cents on $4.28 billion in revenue.
Credit-loss provisions were $1.39 billion, up 9.6% from a year earlier but down 4.7% from the prior quarter. Net charge-offs, loans the bank doesn't think are collectible, rose to 2.30% from 2.27% and 1.42%, respectively.
Shares closed at $24.49 Tuesday and were inactive premarket.
