Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference on December 4, 2018.
Michael Newberg | CNBC
Bank of America beat analysts’ estimates for profit and revenue as the firm’s consumer and banking businesses offset a slump in trading.
The firm said net income excluding an impairment charge rose 4% to $7.5 billion, or an adjusted 75 cents a share. When including the $2.1 billion charge tied to the end of a partnership with First Data, net income fell to 56 cents a share, exceeding the 51 cent estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
Revenue was almost unchanged from a year earlier at $23 billion, edging out the $22.79 billion estimate.
Bank of America, the second-biggest U.S. lender after J.P. Morgan Chase, is the “most asset sensitive” among the big banks, meaning that changes in interest rates impact it the most, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan is likely to lower guidance for the net interest income it earns after the Federal Reserve cut rates twice in the quarter. The firm has already done that twice this year, in April and July, and each time the bank’s shares traded lower off the news.
Under Moynihan, the firm has steadily trimmed expenses while holding the line on or increasing revenue. (The bank has said that its expenses would total $53 billion for 2019.) That has made it a favorite holding of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which has asked the Fed for permission to take his stake beyond the 10% level, according to Bloomberg.
The bank’s shares have climbed 21% this year, exceeding the 18% return of the KBW Bank Index.
Here’s what Wall Street expected:
Earnings: 51 cents a share, down 23% from a year earlier, according to Refinitiv.
Revenue: $22.79 billion, down 0.6% from a year earlier.
Net Interest Margin: 2.39%, according to FactSet
Trading Revenue: Fixed income $2.04 billion, Equities $1.09 billion
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