Tennessee’s biggest bank reported a 31.5% drop in earnings this year compared with a year ago, but the results still were above analysts’ predictions for the period ended Sept. 30.
The Memphis-based First Horizon Corp., Tennessee’s biggest bank with $82.5 billion in assets across a dozen southern states, said Wednesday it had adjusted net income, excluding one-time events, of $150 million, or 27 cents per share, in the third quarter. Earnings were down from the adjusted $219 million in net income for First Horizon a year earlier in the same period, but the bank’s profits were still 2 cents per share above the consensus average among analysts who follow the bank.
Shares of First Horizon traded higher Wednesday in response to the earnings report.
“Our loan and deposit trends continue to be solid,” First Horizon CEO Bryan Jordan said in an earnings report Wednesday. “We remain disciplined with credit quality; as the economic environment drives credit normalization, we expect credit to perform well over the cycle.”
First Horizon opened more than 19,000 new deposit accounts in the third quarter, bringing more than $1 billion in new balances, Jordan said. But First Horizon’s interest rate margin declined from 3.48% a year ago to 3.17% in the most recent quarter as interest rates paid on deposits continued higher this year.
First Horizon remained the biggest bank in Chattanooga this year with deposits as of June 30 totaling more than $2.8 billion.
“Our deposit growth exceeded loan growth, which makes our total capital position very strong and above peer average,” Jay Dale, market president for First Horizon in Chattanooga, said in a statement Wednesday.
— Compiled by Dave Flessner