Bank Of America Earnings Appear To Be Stronger Than Expected, But There's A Lot Of Noise
Q4 adjusted revenue came in at $19.6 billion, which was below analysts' forecast for $21.0 billion.
It earned $0.03 per share, which was a tad higher than the $0.02 forecast by analysts.
The stock is trading up 1 percent right now.
It should be noted that bank earnings announcements tend to be very noisy, so the reported EPS may not be comparable to the consensus EPS.
Here's all of that noise:
As previously announced, financial results in the fourth quarter of 2012 were negatively impacted by a provision of $2.7 billion related to the settlements with Fannie Mae with respect to representations and warranties and compensatory fees; other provision items of $2.5 billion which included a $1.1 billion provision for the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) acceleration agreement, total litigation expense of $0.9 billion and a $0.5 billion provision for obligations related to mortgage insurance rescissions; and $0.7 billion of negative debit valuation adjustments (DVA) and fair value option (FVO) adjustments due to improvement in the company's credit spreads. These items were partially offset by a net income tax benefit of $1.3 billion primarily due to the recognition of foreign tax credits of certain non-U.S. subsidiaries; a gain of $0.4 billion on the previously announced sale of the company's 49-percent stake in Mitsubishi UFJ Merrill Lynch PB Securities; and a positive valuation adjustment on mortgage servicing rights (MSR) of $0.3 billion related to the previously announced servicing sales.
Here are some notable items:
- Net Interest Income Increased to $10.6 Billion From $10.2 Billion in Prior Quarter
- Total Average Deposit Balances up $28 Billion, or 11 Percent (Annualized) From Prior Quarter
- First-lien Mortgage Production Increased 6 Percent From Prior Quarter
- Global Wealth and Investment Management Posts Record Quarterly Earnings
- Period-end Commercial Loans and Leases in the Global Banking Segment, Including Real Estate Loans, Grew 7 Percent From Prior Quarter to $252 Billion
- Investment Banking Fees; Fees Up 20 Percent From Prior Quarter and 58 Percent From the Year-ago Quarter
Read the whole earnings announcement here.