JPMorgan Chase (JPM 1.42%) kicked off earnings season by being the first of the big banks to release its latest results on Friday morning. The company definitely set a positive tone: Not only did JPMorgan Chase beat estimates on the top and bottom lines, but a deeper dive shows pretty strong performance all around.
Here's a look at the headline numbers, other highlights that investors need to know, and where CEO Jamie Dimon sees our economy heading in the short term.
Image source: JPMorgan Chase.
The headline numbers
When you read about earnings releases or hear about them on television, the two metrics that are generally in focus are revenue (top line) and earnings per share (bottom line), so let's take a look at how JPMorgan did.
The bank beat estimates on both sides of the equation. Revenue of $27.8 billion was about $300 million more than analysts had hoped to see, and EPS of $2.34 not only represented 33% year-over-year growth, but also beat estimates by $0.09.
Strong results all around
Of course, the headline numbers never tell the whole story of how a company is doing. With that in mind, here's a rundown of some of the highlights of JPMorgan Chase's third quarter:
- JPMorgan's return on equity of 14% is well in excess of the 10% industry benchmark and is likely to be among the best of the big banks for the quarter.
- Loans are up 6% over the year-ago quarter and deposits grew by 4%.
- JPMorgan Chase's investment banking division has the top market share in global investment banking fees through the first three quarters.
- JPMorgan's credit card and auto lending revenue increased 12% on strong volume and rising interest rates. In addition, the credit card net charge-off rate fell by 36 basis points to 2.91%, so not only is the credit card loan portfolio growing rapidly, but quality doesn't appear to be suffering.
- Net interest margin of 2.51% was 5 basis points higher than the second quarter, indicating that the rising-rate environment is indeed translating into better profit margins for the bank.
A little bit of bad news
As per usual, JPMorgan Chase's earnings report wasn't 100% great news; earnings reports seldom are. Fixed-income trading revenue, which has been an ongoing concern in the low-volatility market of the past few years, came in significantly weaker than expected and fell by 10% from the same quarter last year.
Even so, it seems like the good news clearly outweighs this piece of negative news in the minds of investors, as the stock is up as of 9:45 a.m. EDT Friday morning.
Jamie Dimon sounds rather cautious going forward
Following the earnings report, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon expressed concerns about U.S. economic growth. While Dimon pointed out that the economy is very strong, he said that economic growth could come to an end thanks to rising interest rates and geopolitical issues, including the United States' ongoing trade war with China, Brexit, central banks winding down their balance sheets, and more.
In short, while there's no doubt that the U.S. economy is doing quite well, there's a long list of factors that could potentially change that.
