Bank of America Corp & Freeport-McMoRan Copper Reports Lower Profit, But Beat Estimates (NYSE:BAC, NYSE:FCX)
Bank of America Corp(NYSE:BAC) reported a sharp fall in its first quarter profit, but that came ahead of analysts’ estimates.
The second-largest U.S. bank said that it earned $653 million, or 3 cents a share, down from a year ago profit of $2.05 billion, or 17 cents a share. The bank’s results included a $4.8 billion negative valuation adjustment related to changes in the company’s credit spreads, equal to 28 cents per share.
Total revenue also fell to $22.3 billion from $26.9 billion a year ago. Revenue, net of interest expense, on a fully taxable-equivalent basis was $22.5 billion for the quarter. Excluding the valuation adjustments from both periods, revenue was down 3 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to $27.3 billion.
Shares of the company are now up over 3% in the pre-market session.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.(NYSE:FCX) shares are trading higher in the pre-market session as the company reporter a higher than estimated first-quarter profit.
The company reported net income of million, or 80 cents a share, down from a year ago profit of $1.5 billion, or $1.57 a share. The latest quarter’s profitability was hurt partly by lower metal sales following labor problems at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned 96 cents a share, ahead of analysts’ target by 10 cents.
Revenue during the quarter fell to $4.61 billion from $5.71 billion. Freeport said first-quarter consolidated sales of 827 million pounds of copper and 288,000 ounces of gold were lower than its January 2012 estimates of 875 million pounds of copper and 425,000 ounces of gold.
During the first quarter, spot gold gained 8 percent — from $1,563.80 an ounce to $1,688.29 on March 30. Copper climbed 11 percent in the quarter, with benchmark May COMEX futures moving up from $3.44 per pound to $3.82.
Shares of FCX are up 1.60% in the pre-market session.