SAN FRANCISCO (Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co., the current merger partner to First Security Corp. and the seventh-largest U.S. bank, said first-quarter profit rose 14 percent to a record $1.01 billion.
Per-share earnings rose to 61 cents from 53 cents. Net income a year earlier was $884 million.Per-share results bettered by a penny the average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. Wells Fargo shares rose 7/16 to 39 13/16 in early trading Tuesday. The stock has declined 1.55 percent this year.
Net interest income rose 8 percent to $2.44 billion. The net interest margin declined to 5.56 percent from 5.58 percent from lower funding costs.
The provision for bad loans narrowed to $255 million from $270 million.
Noninterest income rose 10 percent to $1.91 billion, mostly from trust and investment fees and service charges on deposits. Trust and investment fees rose 20 percent, mostly because of an accounting change for mutual funds, the bank said on a pre-recorded conference call.