Washington Federal in Seattle reported higher quarterly profit due to gains from the sale of foreclosed properties and certain investments.
The $14.4 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings rose 3% from a year earlier, to $39.1 million, or 37 cents a share. The results beat the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg by 2 cents.
The company reported a $9.6 million gain from selling $237 million of investments and a net gain of $3.2 million tied to the sale of foreclosed real estate. Those gains were partially offset by a $7.9 million charge tied to prepayment on $100 million in Federal Home Loan Bank debt.
Net interest income fell 3%, to $100.6 million, as earnings from mortgage-backed securities fell by 69%, to $1.1 million. While total loans increased, the net interest margin compressed by 3 basis points from a year earlier, to 3.02%.
Noninterest expense rose by 6.4%, to $56.7 million, after the company bought a number of branches from Bank of America.
