Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) reported its first-quarter earnings before opening bell this morning, and its net income surged from $653 million or 3 cents per diluted share during the first quarter of last year to $2.6 billion or 20 cents per diluted share. The company’s revenue jumped 5 percent to $23.7 billion compared to $22.5 billion in the same quarter a year ago. However, the bank missed the expectations of analysts for earnings per share while narrowly beating consensus for revenue. Consensus for the bank was earnings per share of 23 cents on $23.5 billion in revenue.
A statement from the bank this morning cited the drivers for results from this year’s first quarter as increased brokerage income, higher fees for investment banking and better credit quality across the bank’s major portfolios. The bank said those positives were “partially offset” by decreased mortgage income and lower net gains on debt security sales.
The bank also said its expenses during the quarter fell and that it plans to begin part of its capital plan during the current quarter.
“We reduced noninterest expense by nearly $1 billion year-over-year,” said CFO Bruce Thompson in a statement. “Our relentless focus on capital, liquidity and expenses reduction enables us to be in position to return excess capital to investors through the previously announced common stock repurchase program and preferred stock redemptions.”
Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) said starting in this quarter, it has been improved to redeem $5.5 billion in preferred stock and buy back $5 billion worth of common stock.
As of the moment of this writing, shares of Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) were down 3 percent in pre-market trades, erasing Tuesday’s gains of 2.5 percent.
