In this articleBACFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTBank of America, the nation’s second-largest lender, beat on the top and bottom lines during the first quarter, bolstered by equities sales and trading.Here’s what the firm reported:Earnings per share: $1.11 per share vs. $1.01 LSEG estimateRevenue: $30.43 billion vs. $29.93 billion estimateThe bank said Wednesday that net income rose 17% to $8.6 billion, or $1.11 per share, Bank of America’s highest EPS in almost two decades.Revenue rose 7.2% to $30.43 billion on rising net interest income, higher trading revenue, and fees from investment banking and asset management. Tune in at 10:15 a.m. ET as Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan joins CNBC TV to discuss the bank’s earnings report. Watch in real time on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.Equities trading contributed to the beat, as the geopolitical environment roiled stock markets. Revenue in that business jumped 30% to $2.83 billion, topping the StreetAccount estimate by roughly $350 million and helping drive the bank’s trading operations to its best quarter in 15 years.Investment banking also beat estimates and was up 21% to $1.8 billion, compared with StreetAccount consensus of $1.73 billion. Net interest income, the profitability metric for loan-making, increased by 9% to $15.9 billion and beat expectations of $15.67 billion as well, according to StreetAccount. That was due to higher loan and deposit balances, fixed-rate asset repricing and markets activity.In a sign that the bank’s borrowers weren’t deteriorating, the firm posted a $1.3 billion provision for credit losses in the quarter, lower than the $1.5 billion provision in the year earlier period and about $190 million below the estimate.”We remain watchful of evolving risks. However, we saw healthy client activity, including solid consumer spending and stable asset quality, indicating a resilient American economy,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in the release.Still, like rival Goldman Sachs, the bank’s fixed income revenue came in below expectations. That business generated about $3.5 billion in revenue, missing the StreetAccount estimate by about $330 million.The net-charge-off ratio, showing what proportion of total loans were deemed unable to be collected, improved 6 basis points during the quarter to 0.48%. The firm’s consumer banking and global wealth divisions each gained more than 20% in net income.Return on tangible common equity, a measure of profitability, was 16%, a more than 200 basis point improvement.— CNBC’s Hugh Son and Laya Neelakandan contributed to this report. Correction: Bank of America previously guided to net interest income growth of between 5% and 7% this year. A previous version of this article misstated the range. And the firm’s consumer banking and global wealth divisions each gained more than 20% in net income. A previous version misstated the growth metric. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news. …
