Huntington 4Q Net Income Increases to $432 Million

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Huntington Bancshares Inc., holding company of Huntington Bank, Tuesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $432 million, or 37 cents a common share, and full-year 2017 net income of $1.2 billion, or $1 per common share.

This compares to third-quarter net income of $275 million, or 23 cents a share, and an 81% increase from the year-ago fourth-quarter income of $239 million, or 20 cents a share.

Full-year 2016 income was $712 million, or 70 cents per share.

The acquisition of FirstMerit Corp. and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act related expenses affected the full-year performance by two cents a share, Huntington said in its earnings release. “Adjusted earnings per common share were 98 cents,” it said.

In a prepared statement, the president, chairman and CEO of Huntington, Steve Steinour, said, “The 2017 fourth quarter caps off another year of record performance and significant achievements for Huntington. With the FirstMerit integration complete, our fourth-quarter results illustrate the performance improvements realized over the past two years. We achieved our long-term financial goals for Return on Tangible Common Equity and Efficiency Ratio on a GAAP basis for the first time. In fact, during the fourth quarter, we achieved all five of our long-term financial goals.”

Key performance ratios for the quarters ended Dec. 31, Sept. 30 and Dec. 31, 2016:

• Return on average assets, 1.67%, 1.08%, 0.95%.
• Return on average common equity, 17.0%, 10.5%, 9.4%.
• Net interest margin, 3.30%, 3.29%, 3.25%.
• Efficiency ratio, 54.9%, 60.5%, 61.6%.

Fourth-quarter highlights Huntington cited compared to the year-ago quarter:

• $2.5 billion, or 4%, increase in average loans and leases, including a $1.1 billion, or 15%, increase in average residential mortgage loans and a $1.1 billion, or 10%, increase in average automobile loans.
• $1.9 billion, or 3%, increase in average total core deposits, driven by a $2.1 billion, or 11%, increase in average money market deposits; average total demand deposits increased $1.4 billion, or 4%.
• $123 million, or 11 cents per share, estimated tax benefit related to federal tax reform.
• Net charge-offs represented 24% of average loans and leases, down from 26%.
• Noninterest expense (includes salaries and employee benefits, data processing, occupancy and rents, marketing and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. premiums) was $48 million, or 7%, decrease in noninterest expense, driven by a $53 million reduction in significant item-related expenses.

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