Why USB Is Up and PNC Is Down

This morning saw a slew of earnings from the financial sector. Here we take a brief look at the results from regional lenders US Bancorp (NYSE: USB  ) and PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC  ) .
Why US Bancorp is upShareholders of US Bancorp should be happy this morning. According to the bank’s press release, fourth-quarter earnings at the Minneapolis-based lender jumped 39%.
The bank’s net income increased $376 million to $1,350 million compared with net income of $974 million from the same period a year ago. This was on the back of an 8.1% year-over-year increase in net revenue.
In terms of the numbers more generally, three things stick out.
First, the bank’s average deposits grew by 17.3% over the same period a year ago — 11.7% excluding acquisitions.
Second, average total loans in the quarter grew by 5.9% over the fourth quarter of 2010. This was in line with results at Citigroup (NYSE: C  ) , JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM  ) , and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) , three of the four largest banks in the country. Citi’s loans grew 14%. JPMorgan’s increased 4%. And Wells Fargo’s improved 2%.
Third, the bank set aside only $497 million in loan-loss provisions compared with $912 million a year ago. Indeed, in what hopes to be a harbinger of things to come for the broader economy, the bank’s total nonperforming loans decreased by a staggering $1 billion from the same quarter in 2010.
In terms of the balance sheet, the bank’s book value per share increased 14.4% to $16.43 a share. And its tier 1 common equity ratio, an important measure of a bank’s capital position, increased to 8.6% from 7.8% last year.
The bank also reiterated its commitment to returning a significant amount of its earnings to shareholders through dividends. While it currently returns 29% of its earnings through both dividends and share buybacks, its stated long-term goal is to do so with a “majority of our earnings.”
Why PNC Financial is down
Shareholders of PNC Financial won’t be similarly rejoicing, as fourth-quarter profits at the Pittsburgh-based regional bank plunged 42%. For the quarter, the bank reported earnings of $476 million, down from a year-earlier profit of $823 million. On a per-share basis, this equates to $0.85 and $1.50, respectively.
For the year, meanwhile, the bank reported net income of $3.1 billion, or $5.64 per share, a decrease of 8.8% compared with 2010 net income of $3.4 billion, or $5.74 per share.
According to the bank’s press release, a number of factors contributed to a decrease in fourth-quarter revenue from $3.9 billion in 2010 down to $3.5 billion in 2011. These included a nonrecurring $160 million gain realized in last year, as well as lower debit card and commercial service fees recorded this year.
The silver-lining to PNC’s results concerns the performance of its loans. The ratio of non-performing loans to total loans decreased 73 basis points to 2.24%, down from 2.97% from the year-ago period. And along these lines, the bank set aside $71 million less in provisions for credit losses.
In addition, the bank progressed on the balance-sheet front. Its book value per share increased 9.3% from $56.29 last year to $61.52 today. And its tier 1 common equity ratio improved to 10.3% from 9.8% last year.
Next upThe next big bank to report is Bank of America, which releases its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Here at The Motley Fool, it’s expected that the quarter may have been ugly for the nation’s second-largest bank by assets because of the size of its investment banking and global business. Indeed, despite growing their loan books, both Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase reported worse-than-expected results as a consequence of capital market exposure via these business segments.
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