Huntington Reports $178M Fourth-Quarter Net Income

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Huntington Bancshares Inc., holding company of Huntington Bank, Thursday reported fourth-quarter net income of $178 million, or 21 cents per diluted common share and full-year net income of $693 million, or 81 cents per diluted common share.

This compares to fourth-quarter 2014 net income of $164 million, or 19 cents a share, and 2013 net income of $632 million, or 72 cents a share.

Third-quarter net income was $153 million, or 18 cents a share.

In a prepared statement, the chairman, president and CEO, Steve Steinour, said he is pleased by the year’s results: “Impressive full-year revenue growth, coupled with disciplined expense control, delivered strong net income and EPS growth for our shareholders.” He pointed to investments in “key growth drivers, such as technology and our in-store strategy, while exiting some non-core businesses” as underpinnings of that growth.

Full-year highlights compared to 2014 Huntington cited:

• A $3.2 billion, or 7% increase in average loans and leases, including a $1.4 billion, or 8%, increase in commercial and industrial loans and a $1.1 billion, or 14%, increase in automobile loans.
• A $4 billion, or 6% increase in total core deposits, including a $2.4 billion, or 17% increase in average noninterest bearing demand deposits and a $1.5 billion, or 8% increase in money market deposits.
• A $60 million, or 6% increase in noninterest income, which includes $27 million increase in mortgage banking fees and a $37 million increase in card and payment processing income.
• Net charge-offs represented 0.18% of average loans and leases, down from 0.27% in 2014.
• Net interest income was 1.951 billion compared to $1.837 billion in 2014, a 5% increase.
• Noninterest income was $1.039 billion compared to $979 million the year before, a 17% increase.

Key performance ratios for full-year 2015 and 2014:

• Return on average assets, 1.01%, 1.01%.
• Return on average common equity, 10.7%, 10.2%.
• Net interest margin, 3.15%, 3.23%.
• Efficiency ratio, 64.5%, 65.1%.

Key performance ratios for the quarters ended Dec. 31 and Sept. 30, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2014:

• Return on average assets, 1.00%, 0.87%, 1.00%.
• Return on average common equity, 10.8%, 9.3%, 10.3%.
• Net interest margin, 3.09%, 3.16%, 3.18%.
• Efficiency ratio, 63.7%, 69.1%, 66.2%.

Noninterest expense in the fourth quarter was $488 million, up $5 million from the third quarter and $15 million higher than the year-ago quarter. Of this increase, much of the $26 million, or 10%, was attributed to pay increases related to the May implementation of annual merit increases largely related to the build-out of the ins-store strategy.

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