Sallie Mae (SLM), SLM Corp., Wednesday said first-quarter profit surged to $346 million or $0.74 per share from $112 million or $0.21 per share in the same period last year.
Core earnings attributable to the company totaled $283 million, down slightly from $284 million last year. On a per-share basis, core earnings improved to $0.61 from $0.55 last year.
On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.59 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net-interest income dropped to $795 million from $811 million last year. Other income totaled $90 million, up from $40 million last year.
Looking ahead, the company projects full-year 2013 core earnings at $2.49 per share, inclusive of the contributions from the two FFELP loan securitization trust residual sales in 2013. Analysts currently expect the company to report full-year earnings of $2.35 per share.
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