Bank of America Earnings Hammered by Legal Costs

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: April 16, 2014 7:55 am

Last Updated: April 27, 2020 5:19 pm

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) reported first-quarter results before markets opened Monday. The most heavily traded of the big bank stocks reported a diluted earnings per share (EPS) loss of $0.05 on revenue of $22.77 billion. In the same period a year ago, the bank reported EPS of $0.10 on revenue of $23.5 billion. First-quarter results also compare to the consensus estimates for EPS of $0.05 on revenue of $22.33 billion.

Results include $6 billion in litigation expenses related to the bank’s settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency and other reserves related legacy mortgage business. The bank agreed to pay $9.3 billion to settle the charges that it sold bad mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bank of America also said it reached settlements on other claims totaling approximately $950 million.

The bank did not provide guidance in its earnings release. The consensus estimate for second-quarter EPS is $0.34 on revenues of $22.39 billion. For the full year, the consensus calls for EPS of $1.08 on revenues of $89.35 billion.

Not much was expected of Bank of America in the first quarter, and the bank delivered to expectations as it continues to get slammed with settlements related to its acquisition of Countrywide during the financial crisis. The bank has now settled seven of nine lawsuits with various trusts and expects the other two to reach a conclusion in the next 45 days.

The bank’s CEO said:

The cost of resolving more of our mortgage issues hurt our earnings this quarter. But the earnings power of our business and customer strategy generated solid results and we continued to return excess capital to our shareholders.

Bank of America recently received approval from the Federal Reserve to increase its dividend from $0.01 to $0.05, and its capital ratios and credit quality also improved. It increased its estimated Basel III Tier 1 transition common ratio to 11.4% in the first quarter. Its estimated Basel III fully phased-in common capital ratio rose to 9.3%. The bank also raised its tangible book value per share by $0.02 to $13.81.

Shares traded down about 0.25% in the premarket Wednesday to $16.36. The current 52-week range is $11.23 to $18.03. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $17.60 before these results were announced.

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