BB&T Posts Merger-Driven Profit Growth

By Austen Hufford 

BB&T Corp. said profit and revenue rose in its latest quarter as recent acquisitions helped boost growth.

Its earnings results beat Wall Street expectations.

The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based lender reported earnings of $587 million, up from $501 million a year earlier. Per-share profit grew to 66 cents from 62 cents as the number of shares outstanding grew 12%. Excluding certain items, earnings per share were 71 cents.

Total revenue, which is a combination of net interest income and fee-based income, grew 18% to $2.75 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected adjusted profit of 65 cents a share on $2.73 billion in revenue.

The regional bank has been making a string of deals recently. In April, it closed its $1.8 billion purchase of Pennsylvania-based National Penn Bancshares Inc. and its $500 million deal to acquire U.S. wholesale insurance broker Swett & Crawford.

Chief Executive Kelly King said both acquisitions "contributed to our strong second-quarter results" as the company continues to expand its footprint. The company said merger-related and restructuring charges took $58 million off the bottom line.

Net interest income rose to $1.62 billion from $1.31 billion a year earlier. Net interest margin, a key profitability measure, rose from a year earlier. That gauge, which is closely tied to interest rates, came in at 3.41%, up from 3.27% in the same quarter last year, but down from the 3.43% in the previous quarter.

Revenue from fees increased 11% to $1.13 billion, primarily due to the acquisitions while noninterest expenses increased 8.7% because of higher personnel costs and merger-related and restructuring charges, also related to the recent deals.

BB&T added to its provision for loan losses, setting aside $111 million for credit losses, up from $97 million a year earlier, but down from the $184 million in the first quarter.

Shares in the company, up 3.7% in the past three months, were inactive in premarket trading.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 21, 2016 07:15 ET (11:15 GMT)

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