Fifth Third Bancorp Rises Pre-market After Jump In Q4 Profit: Retail’s Exuberant

During the fourth quarter, the bank reported adjusted earnings of $0.90 per share, excluding charges of $0.05 per share. Analysts were expecting an adjusted profit of $0.87 per share.

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) shares gained in pre-market trade on Tuesday after the lender posted an 18.3% year-over-year (YoY) rise in fourth-quarter profit.

The company reported a net income of $582 million, or $0.85 per share, compared with $492 million, or $0.72 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

The Cincinnati-based bank reported adjusted earnings of $0.90 per share, which excludes charges of $0.05 per share, during the fourth quarter. Analysts were expecting an adjusted profit of $0.87 per share, according to FinChat data.

FITB’s net interest income (NII) rose 1% to $1.44 billion for the quarter, aided by loan growth, deposit rate management, and fixed-rate asset re-pricing.

The company said its interest-bearing liabilities costs fell 38 basis points compared to the third quarter, improving its net interest margin by seven basis points.

The bank’s wealth and asset management revenue grew 11% to $163 million, aided by gains in personal asset management revenue, while its capital markets fees rose 16%.

The improvements helped offset a 14% slump in mortgage revenue.

Its total average portfolio loans and leases fell by 1% compared to last year, hurt by a decline in commercial and industrial loans. According to S&P data, U.S. manufacturing production was down for the fifth successive month in December, with the rate of contraction the fastest in a year and a half.

The bank’s provision for credit losses stood at $179 million, compared with $55 million in the year-ago quarter.

Fifth Third Bancorp forecast a 5% to 6% increase in NII in 2024.

However, it expects first-quarter NII to remain stable and sees non-interest income fall between 7% and 8% sequentially.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits moved up to ‘extremely bullish’ (83/100) territory from ‘bullish’(58/100) a day ago, while retail chatter soared to ‘extremely high’ levels.

Last week, major Wall Street banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan & Chase, and Wells Fargo, topped Street estimates for quarterly profit.

Over the past year, FITB had gained 28.3%.

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