Wednesday, Westamerica Bancorp. (WABC), the holding company of Westamerica Bank, reported an increase in profit for the third quarter, helped mainly by the absence of a significant loss from equity securities present last year.
Westamerica Bancorp's net income applicable to common shareholders for the third quarter was $23.79 million or $0.81 per share, compared to net income applicable to common shareholders of $44 thousand or break even per share a year earlier.
On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.78 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimate typically exclude special items.
Net interest income increased by 26.5% to $61.59 million from $48.69 million a year-ago. Non-interest income for quarter was $15.96 million, compared with non-interest loss of $27.50 million for the prior year period.
Analysts expected the company to post revenues of $78.18 million for the third quarter.
Net interest margin improved to 5.48% from 5.19% for the same quarter last year. Non-interest income for the year-ago period included net loss from equity securities of $41.21 million. Service charges on deposits rose by 25.5% to $9.48 million from a year earlier, while merchant credit card income dropped 17.2% to $2.16 million.
Allowance for loan losses dropped to $42.68 million at the end of the quarter from $50.10 million at the end of the same quarter a year-ago.
For the nine months, net income applicable to common shareholders increased to $98.11 million or $3.35 per share from $39.02 million or $1.33 per share a year earlier. Net interest income rose to $183.27 million from $146.41 million for the year-ago period. Non-interest income for the nine-month period was $96.32 million, compared to non-interest loss of $12.0 million in the previous year.
Wednesday, WABC closed at $51.73, up 1.63% on Nasdaq.
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