Tag Archives: Quarterly Earnings

Positive economic and housing news lifted fixed mortgage rates to their highest level in months this week. According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 3.42 (0.7 point) for the week ending January 24, up from 3.38 percent last week. The last time the average 30-year reading was this high was September 29 of last year, Freddie Mac said. Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for Freddie Mac, said the rise in fixed rates is unlikely to deter the housing recovery.

Bank of America and Citigroup both released their fourth-quarter earnings Thursday, revealing the scars their legacy mortgage issues have left. BofA reported net income of $732 million, a significant decline from $2 billion in Q4 2011. The bank did better on a year-long scale, coming in at $4.2 billion (well above its $1.4 billion income in 2011). Legal expenses also weighed down profits at Citigroup, though the company did manage to come out ahead on a yearly basis with a $1.2 billion profit in Q4.

According to its quarterly filing, JPMorgan took in $5.7 billion in net income during 2012's final quarter, up 53 percent from the same quarter in 2011. Revenue for the quarter was $24.4 billion, up 10 percent compared with the prior year. Much of that profit came on the bank of JPMorgan's strengthened mortgage business. The bank's mortgage banking division reported originations of $51.2 billion in Q4, up 33 percent year-over-year and 8 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Wells Fargo pulled in a record net profit of $5.1 billion in the final quarter of 2012, up 24 percent from the same period in 2011.

Bank of America and Fannie Mae reached a $10.3 billion agreement Monday to resolve repurchase claims on loans originated from 2000 through 2008.

Fannie Mae reported a $1.8 billion net income for Q3 this year, an improvement over the $5.1 billion loss last year.

A turnaround in housing helped drive Freddie Mac to a $2.9 billion profit in the third quarter, the GSE reported.

After aggressively pursuing opportunities to grow, Ocwen Financial Corporation (Ocwen) reported an increase earnings in the third quarter of 2012. The mortgage servicer reported a net income of $51.4 million, or $0.37 per share in Q3 2012, a sharp increase of more than $30 million from the same quarter a year ago. Revenue soared even higher in Q3, spiking 90 percent from last year to $232.7 million. Ocwen says the figures for revenue and income from operations were record-setting numbers.

A rather rough quarter for Bank of America still resulted in a better-than-anticipated quarterly net income of $340 million, the bank reported.

PNC recorded net income of $925 million in Q3, an 11 percent year-over-year increase from $834 million. PNC's total net income for the first three quarters was $2.3 billion, down from $2.6 billion in the same period last year. Part of PNC's quarterly increase can be attributed to a rise in residential mortgage banking revenue, which grew $35 million "due to higher loan sales revenue driven by higher loan origination volume" the company said. Loan origination volume increased $1.2 billion from third-quarter 2011 to $3.8 billion.