By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Regions Financial stock (NYSE:RF) fell 3.4% Thursday after the bank reported a 30% drop in its fourth-quarter net profit.
Net profit in December quarter came in at $414 million compared to $588 million a year ago. Total revenue was $1.63 billion after taking a hit of 3% as both net interest and non-interest income fell.
Total loans extended during the quarter were lower than a year ago and came in at around $87 billion.
Net interest income is a bank’s bread-and-butter metric that measures the difference between the interest earned on loans and the one paid out to customers for their deposits. Non-interest income is basically fees the bank earns on services provided to customers such as investment advisory and asset management.
Among fee-based services, both capital markets and mortgage businesses suffered. The bank said the year was the best for its capital markets division since it began rebuilding that business in 2014.
During the fourth quarter alone, the bank completed three acquisitions. This included deals for point-of-sale lender EnerBank, commercial real estate loan origination platform Sabal Capital and M&A advisory services provider Clearsight Advisors.
The bank closed the quarter with deposits of nearly $137 billion, growing around $17 billion from a year ago.