(RTTNews) - City Holding Co.(CHCO: News ), a holding company for City National Bank of West Virginia, Friday said it turned to a profit in the third quarter, on lower loan loss provisions and non-interest income that helped offset declines in interest income. On a per share basis, earnings beat Wall Street consensus.

For the third quarter, net income was $10.50 million or $0.66 per share, compared to a net loss of $2.56 million or $0.16 per share in the same quarter a year ago. On average, six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.64 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimate typically excludes one-time items.

Quarterly results included provision for loan losses of $1.68 million, compared to $2.35 million in the year-earlier quarter. Results also included net charge-offs of $3 million.

For the quarter, the company recorded $2.3 million of other than temporary impairment losses related to credit, which lowered reported net income by $1.4 million or $0.09 per share.

Net interest income dropped 10% to $23.9 million, as interest income from loans and investments decreased more quickly than interest expense on deposits and other interest bearing liabilities. Total non-interest income was $12.34 million, compared to a loss of $12.76 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Exclusive of investment losses, non-interest income remained flat at $14.7 million for both the third quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of 2008. Street expected revenues of $39.07 million for the quarter.
Total non-interest expenses decreased to $18.80 million from $19.25 million in the comparable quarter last year. Net interest margin was down at 4.09%, compared to 4.78% in the year-ago quarter.

As compared to December 31, 2008, loans have decreased $15 million at September 30, 2009, due to decreases in residential real estate loans of $21.3 million and commercial loans of $6.1 million. Total average depository balances decreased $5.2 million or 0.2%, from the quarter ended June 30, 2009 to the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

For the nine-month period, net income was $31.57 million or $1.98 per share, compared to $23.86 million or $1.47 per share in the prior-year period. Net interest income dropped to $71.85 million from $75.67 million in the year-ago period. Total non-interest income was $39.06 million, up from $18.76 million in the comparable period last year.

CHCO is currently trading at $30.17, down $0.01 or 0.03%, on a volume of 42.01 million shares.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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