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Bank of America 1Q Profit Up 14 Pct.
Thursday April 20, 7:23 am ET
Bank of America First-Quarter Profit Up 14 Percent, Lifted by MBNA Acquisition

CHARLOTTE (AP) -- Bank of America Corp. said Thursday first-quarter profit surged 14 percent as the nation's largest retail bank was boosted by its acquisition of credit card company MBNA Corp.

Quarterly profit rose to $4.99 billion, or $1.07 per share, from $4.39 billion, or $1.07 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding charges related to the acquisition., Bank of America posted earnings of $5.05 billion, or $1.08 per share.

Results included expenses of $320 million, or 5 cents per share, from the impact of stock option accounting. In addition, Bank of America said it terminated some derivatives used as part of its hedging strategy, reducing earnings per share by $175 million, or 2 cents per share.

Analysts, on average, projected earnings of $1 per share on $16.79 billion of revenue, according to Thomson Financial.

Strong performance at its consumer businesses and improvements in trading accounts performance and equity investments drove revenue up 31 percent to $17.94 billion from $13.74 billion a year earlier. On a pro forma basis, as if MBNA had been part of Bank of America's operations for the year-ago quarter, revenue rose 10 percent.

"We have strong momentum in all our businesses as the benefits from continued execution in our consumer businesses were accompanied this quarter by a rebound in trading and good performance in investment banking and wealth management," said Chairman and Chief Executive Ken Lewis in a statement.