On Wednesday, US Bancorp (USB 2.94%) reported its income in the second quarter of this year edged up by less than 1%, but still hit a new record, coming in at $1.5 billion, or $0.78 per share. This topped the expectation of analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance, which expected its earnings would stand at $0.77 per share.
The bank had two counteracting one-time events that when combined resulted in no impact to its earnings per share results. It first noted a settlement of $200 million for mortgage loans with the Federal Housing Administration, and it also highlighted the sale of 3 million shares of Visa, which resulted in a pre-tax gain of $214 million.
In total, US Bancorp saw a nearly 5% improvement in its revenue, which stood at $5.2 billion in the second quarter. While its mortgage banking revenue fell by nearly $120 million, overall the bank saw its noninterest income rise more than 7%.
This was the result of the previously mentioned sale of Visa stock, but it also saw increases in its trust and investment management fees, credit and debit card revenue, deposit service charges, and commercial products revenue. Combined, these four sources added $65 million in revenue, representing a growth of nearly 7.5%.
US Bancorp also highlighted that it continued to see impressive growth in its loans, as commercial loans grew by 12.4% relative to last year to stand at $75 billion in the second quarter. And while it is a smaller amount, its construction and development loans rose by 30% to $8.5 billion. Overall, its loans were up 6.8% relative to the second quarter of 2013.
In total, the bank saw its deposits also rise impressively, as those rose by 6% year over year. US Bancorp also highlighted its low cost deposits were up 8.7% year over year, and 2.6% versus the first quarter.
"Once again, we delivered strong performance across key metrics with returns on average assets and average common equity of 1.60 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively, and industry-leading efficiency," said the president, chairman, and chief executive officer of US Bancorp, Richard Davis, in the earnings release Wednesday. "These results highlight the benefits of our diversified business strategy and prudent expense management philosophy as we continue to produce strong returns for our shareholders."
The bank continued its impressive performance in the second quarter, and Davis also highlighted that thanks to the increased dividend and the repurchase of 15 million shares, 75% of earnings were returned to shareholders in the most recent quarter.