The PNC Financial Services Group saws its profit slide nearly 3% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2012, while still noting an uptick in residential mortgage revenue.
The Pittsburgh, Pa.-based company posted a first-quarter profit of $766 million, or $1.44 a share, down from $832 million, or $1.57 a share, a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings in the $1.43-per-share range.
Meanwhile, its residential mortgage revenue grew from $157 million in the fourth quarter to $230 million, an increase of $73 million. The company attributes that gain to improved net hedging gains on mortgage servicing rights and an increase in loan sales driven by higher loan origination volumes.
Still service charges on deposits fell $13 million in the mortgage segment while consumer fees declined by $5 million from the fourth quarter of 2011.
Investment securities at the end of the first quarter hit $64.6 billion, up from $60.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. The bank attributes the gain to “higher agency residential mortgage-backed securities from net purchase activity and asset-backed and other debt securities added in the RBC Bank acquisition.”
