Investing.com -- Deutsche Bank 's (ETR:DBKGn)(NYSE:DB) on Thursday posted fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of expectations, weighed down by higher costs and litigation charges, sending shares down over 4%.
The German bank posted a net profit of €304 million for the final quarter of 2024, significantly below the consensus estimate of €535 million.
Pre-tax profit came in at €583 million, missing expectations of €945 million. While revenue exceeded forecasts, underlying costs ran higher than expected, leading to the shortfall.
The bank also recorded €659 million in litigation charges, surpassing the €436 million anticipated by analysts, and took €286 million in restructuring and severance costs, above the forecasted €199 million.
At the divisional level, the investment bank was a bright spot, delivering a 29% year-on-year increase in revenue, driven by strong gains in fixed-income trading, which rose 26%.
That outpaced market expectations of a 14% increase and closely tracked gains seen at U.S. investment banks.
Origination and advisory fees surged 71% from a year earlier, well above consensus estimates of a 54% increase.
However, the corporate center posted a larger-than-expected negative result, while asset management underperformed expectations.
Cost pressures weighed on the quarter’s results, with adjusted expenses reaching €5.26 billion.
The company acknowledged that one-time costs—real estate (€100 million), the UK bank levy (€134 million), and currency fluctuations (€65 million)—affected the results. However, even after excluding these, the core cost base remained high.
Loan loss provisions stood at €420 million, in line with expectations. The bank maintained its full-year 2025 loan loss guidance at €1.4 billion to €1.6 billion, a level broadly consistent with analyst expectations.
Meanwhile, net interest income continued to rise slightly in the fourth quarter, and Deutsche Bank projects it will increase further to €13.6 billion in 2025.
Capital levels remained solid, with the bank’s key CET1 ratio at 13.8%, slightly ahead of consensus expectations.
However, the first quarter of 2025 is expected to see a 20-basis-point hit to the ratio due to operational risk-weighted asset adjustments.
Deutsche Bank announced a €750 million share buyback program to return capital to shareholders. This was less than analysts' full-year expectations.
The bank also proposed a €0.68 per share dividend, slightly exceeding forecasts. Management reaffirmed its commitment to exceeding its €8 billion total capital return target for 2021-2025, suggesting a €1 per share dividend for 2025 and further buybacks.
Despite reaffirming revenue guidance and a return on tangible equity target of more than 10% for 2025, analysts at RBC Capital Markets remain skeptical about the bank’s ability to fully deliver on its targets.
“Cost performance was worse than we had expected and the announced buyback is lower than we had penciled in,” said analysts at RBC.
Cost guidance was downgraded from previous estimates, adding to concerns about profitability in the coming year.