M&T Bank Stock In Spotlight After Upbeat Q4 Earnings, But Retail’s Unimpressed

During the fourth quarter, its net interest margin, a gauge of profitability, slipped to 3.58% from 3.61% last year.

Published: Jan 17, 2025, 12:30 AM IST

M&T Bank Corp (MTB) garnered retail attention on Thursday after its fourth-quarter profit beat average analysts’ estimates on loan growth.

The company reported operating earnings of $3.92 per share for the October-December quarter, compared with a Wall Street estimate of $3.74 per share, according to FinChat data.

The Buffalo, New York-based lender’s fourth-quarter net interest income (NII) rose slightly to $1.73 billion.

Its net interest margin, a gauge of profitability, slipped to 3.58% from 3.61% last year.

The bank’s shares were down 2.7% in afternoon trade.

On Dec. 31, the company said its average earnings assets rose $2.6 billion, or 1%, compared to the year-ago quarter, as average loans and leases increased $3 billion.

The increase was primarily due to higher average commercial and industrial loans and leases of $5.3 billion, backed by growth spanning most industry types, and average consumer loans of $3.5 billion, reflecting higher average recreational finance and automobile loans.

However, the gains were partially offset by a reduction in the average balance of commercial real estate loans.

M&T Bank's provision for credit losses fell 38% year-over-year (YoY) to $140 million during the fourth quarter as it had offloaded most of its commercial real estate loans. However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, provisions rose 17%.

The company forecasted 2025 NII to be between $7.1 billion and $7.2 billion, compared with $6.85 billion in 2024.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits swung to ‘bearish’ (43/100) territory from ‘bullish’(64/100) a day ago, while retail chatter remained ‘extremely high.’