(RTTNews) - United Financial Bancorp, Inc. (UBNK: News ), the holding company of United Bank, Friday reported a decline in profit for the third quarter, reflecting lower net interest income and higher provision for loan losses.

Net income for the third quarter declined to $1.90 million or $0.13 per share from $2.36 million or $0.14 per share in the previous year.

The company noted that excluding non-deductible expenses totaling $270 thousand related to the pending acquisition of Commonwealth National Bank, net income would have been $2.2 million or $0.14 per share.

On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.11 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net interest income for the quarter declined 5.3% to $9.97 million from $10.54 million last year. Provision for loan losses increased 24.2% to $800 thousand from $644 thousand a year ago.

Total non-interest income for the quarter increased 14.5% to $1.98 million from $1.73 million in the previous year. Total non-interest expense rose 3.7% to $8.09 million from $7.81 million a year ago.
For the nine-month period, net income decreased to $4.58 million or $0.30 per share from $6.34 million or $0.39 per share in the same period of the previous year. Net interest income for the period slightly improved to $29.67 million from $29.47 million and non-interest income rose to $6.43 million from $4.83 million a year ago.

Total loans increased 1.9% to $886.8 million at September 30, 2009 from $870.3 million at December 31, 2008 mainly due to a $40.7 million rise in commercial mortgages, partially offset by the sale of $29.5 million of lower-coupon, fixed-rate residential mortgages.

Total deposits increased 7.4% to $840.3 million at September 30, 2009 from $782.7 million at December 31, 2008, reflecting growth in core account balances and lower certificate of deposit balances.

The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per share, payable on December 1, 2009, to shareholders of record as of November 6, 2009.

UBNK is currently trading at $12.02, down 0.13 or 1.11%, on the Nasdaq.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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