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Bank of America Corp. on Tuesday said a rise in clients and accounts across its business helped boost its third-quarter profit.
The bank’s
BAC,
net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 was up 10% to $7.8 billion, or 90 cents a share, from $7.1 billion, or 81 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. The FactSet consensus was for 81 cents a share.
Revenue rose to $25.2 billion from $24.5 billion in the year-ago quarter, and was slightly ahead of the FactSet consensus of $25.13 billion.
Bank of America stock was up 0.5% in premarket trades.
Analysts have trimmed their profit only slightly from the forecast of 83 cents a share set at the start of the quarter, as Bank of America’s large consumer banking unit benefited from a relatively strong U.S. economy and jobs picture.
Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said the bank added clients and accounts “across all lines of business.”
The bank managed through a “healthy but closing economy that saw U.S. consumer spending still ahead of last year but beginning to slow.”
Bank of America’s average deposit balances rose by about $1 billion from the previous quarter to $1.9 trillion, but declined by $87 billion, or 4%, from the year-ago quarter.
Global markets revenue increased by 10% to $4.9 billion, driven by higher sales and trading revenue in fixed income, currencies and equities.
The bank added 200,000 new consumer checking accounts.
Average loan and lease balances increased by $12 billion, or 1%, to
$1 trillion, led by higher credit card balances, the bank said.
Caught up in the bearish sentiment in the sector, Bank of America stock dropped 4.6% during the third quarter. In the past month, Bank of America’s stock has dropped by 6.1%, compared to a 1.7% drop by the S&P 500
SPX.
