BB&T Corp. echoed other large regional banks on Thursday in reporting a second-quarter profit surge due to better loan performance.
The Winston-Salem, N.C., banking company's net income attributable to common shareholders increased 46.2%, to $307 million, or 44 cents per diluted share, from a year earlier.
The company's stock price rose about 0.7%, to $25.80, in pre-market trading Thursday morning.
BB&T took further steps to improve the quality of its loan book, selling $675 million in nonperforming assets during the quarter. Its net charge-off rate fell to 1.71%, from 2.48%, and its provision for future credit losses declined 49.5%, to $328 million.
"The pace of improvement in our credit quality accelerated this quarter," Kelly King, BB&T's chairman and chief executive, said in a press release. He added that loan demand continues to be soft, though the company's total average loan balances were flat with about last year at $102.8 billion.
Excluding covered loans, its total average loan balances increased 2.1%, to $97.1 billion.
Total revenue in the quarter fell 10.4%, to $2.18 billion, driven by a decline in noninterest income. The lower noninterest income was due largely to a drop in securities gains and, to a lesser extent, lower fees from deposit service charges and mortgage banking.
