COLUMBUS: Huntington Bancshares Inc. said Thursday its fourth-quarter net income jumped 34 percent, helped by an increase in mortgage banking income.
The parent company of Huntington National Bank earned $159.3 million, or 19 cents per share, up from $119.2 million, or 14 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 17 cents per share, according to a poll by research firm FactSet.
In the Akron-Canton region, 624 Huntington employees work at 63 branches, including some operations inside Giant Eagle locations.
Net interest income, which includes interest collected on loans and interest paid to depositors, rose 5 percent to $434.1 million from $415 million.
Huntington’s average total loans and leases increased 2 percent to $40.4 billion, boosted by a 16 percent jump in average commercial and industrial loans to $16.5 billion.
Noninterest income, which includes fees for banking, insurance and other items, jumped 30 percent to $297.7 million from $229.4 million. The increase included a more than doubling of the company’s mortgage banking income to $61.7 million from $24.1 million.
The company’s provision for loan losses, the amount set aside to cover soured loans, fell 13 percent to $39.5 million from $45.3 million.
For the full year 2012, Huntington, which operates more than 700 branches throughout the Midwest, said it earned $609 million, or 71 cents per share, up from $511.8 million, or 59 cents per share, in 2011.
The company also said Thursday that its board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 4 cents. It will be paid April 1 to shareholders on record March 18.
