Regions Claims Profitability, Slips A Mickey To Bears (RF)

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) filed its annual meeting presentation this morning in an SEC filing, and in that filing, C. Dowd Ritter, Chairman, President and CEO, announced that Regions will report a profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.   Regions gave preliminary information prior to the scheduled earnings announcement date, but it noted that investors should not expect future quarter guidance in advance of scheduled quarterly earnings announcement dates.

In the data it is showing at the annual meeting, the company noted how its dividend cut preserved approximately $780 million per year in capital.  Regions is also noting that the nature of the problem credits has not changed, and there is a continued focus on identification and resolution.

On its capital, Regions will tell holders that it was encouraged to take TARP money and was well capitalized before it took TARP funds.  It also plans to repay those funds as soon as possible.

So here is the notion, the ‘profitability’ is what is running shares.  We looked up earnings estimates at Thomson Reuters, and we have an estimate of -$0.42 EPS for its first quarter.  In fact, no analyst had a profitable quarter pegged for the report.  So we are not sure to what degree the profitability claim will be based on.  Maybe on operations, maybe on items.  We’ll find out when it posts earnings on April 21.

Shares are up over 25% at $6.30 on very strong volume.  Its 52-week trading range is $2.35 to $24.31.

Jon C. Ogg