J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the No. 3 U.S. bank, Wednesday said second-quarter profit tripled, bolstered by investment banking and credit card income growth.
Net income increased to $3.5 billion, or 99 cents a share, from $1.0 billon, or 28 cents a share, a year earlier, when it recorded a litigation reserve charge of $1.2 billion after taxes, or 33 cents a share.
Net revenue for the New York-based bank jumped 19 percent from the year-ago period to $14.9 billion, though it was down about 1 percent from the first quarter.
Per-share earnings were 92 cents after stripping out one-time gains from private equity, litigation insurance recoveries, the sale of shares in credit card association MasterCard Inc.’s initial public offering, as well as Treasury portfolio expenses and merger costs.
Analysts, on average, expected earnings of 87 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $15.35 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. Per-share earnings were up about 48 percent on a comparable basis.
J.P. Morgan’s hard-charging Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has been pushing to realize long-promised cost savings from the bank’s $60 billion acquisition in 2004 of Bank One, where he had been CEO.
Dimon noted in a statement that earnings had benefited from ”the extremely favorable consumer and wholesale credit environment, which is not expected to continue.”
Net income at its investment bank rose 37 percent to $839 million on a 52 percent gain in revenue.
Net income from credit card services rose 61 percent to $875 million, even as revenue slid 6 percent.
The shares have gained 2.6 percent so far this year, about in line with the KBW Bank stocks index as higher interest rate expectations and slumping markets have dampened expectations for a strong turnaround at the bank.