First Horizon Corp. earnings fell in the third quarter due to merger-related expenses from the bank's acquisition of Iberiabank Corp. and the early retirement of some trust preferred securities.
Tennessee's biggest banking company said Wednesday it earned $224 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30. A year earlier, First Horizon earned $295 million, or 53 cents per share.
Excluding one-time items, adjusted third quarter earnings for First Horizon were down nearly 14% from a year ago to $275 million, or 50 cents per share. But the results were still well ahead of the average estimate by the seven bank analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research who predicted an average earnings of 41 cents per share in the third quarter.
First Horizon shares traded higher Wednesday after the earnings announcement, rising nearly 1.5% to close at 17.27 per share.
First Horizon completed its purchase of Louisiana's biggest bank, IberiaBank Corp., in July to create the 42nd biggest banking company in the country.
"Our results this quarter reflect the emerging benefits of the power of the combined organization," First Horizon CEO Bryan Jordan said in a statement. "Operating in high growth markets with an attractive base of specialty businesses positions us well to deliver more resilient results through a range of cycles"
Jordan said core net interest was up 1% and loan volume grew 1% before the impact of the Paycheck Provider Program.
"Additionally, as markets reopened during the quarter, we saw growth in more traditional banking fee income businesses including wealth and deposit products," he said.
First Horizon is the biggest bank operating in the Chattanooga area with more than $3.1 billion of local deposits as of June 30, according to deposit market share data compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
"As an industry, we continue to see growing deposits from stimulus programs and economic growth," said Jay Dale, First Horizon's Chattanooga market president. "We are seeing increased demands for loans that will deploy that liquidity and our credit quality remains very strong."
- Compiled by Dave Flessner, who may be reached at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.