Lower expenses and better credit quality led National Penn Bancshares (NPBC) of Boyertown, Pa., reporting a 62% increase, to $25.3 million, year over year in its first quarter earnings.
The $8.5 billion-asset company said Friday that earnings per share totaled 17 cents, beating estimates of analyst polled by Thomson Reuters by three cents.
National Penn’s noninterest expense decreased almost 8% to $52.4 million as its Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insurance expense declined roughly 63%. The company’s interest expense fell almost 25%, to $17.6 million, year over year.
This was partially offset by a 3% drop, to $63.8 million, in the company’s net interest income before the provision for loan losses. The bank’s noninterest income totaled $24.2 million, up less than 1% from a year earlier as wealth management income rose 4% to $6.2 million.
Classified loans fell 21%, to $347 million, year over year, while net chargeoffs dropped 58% to $7.2 million. This led to the provision for loan losses decreasing 80% to $2 million.
