High interest rates, the First Republic Bank deal, improvement in investment banking (IB) business and solid loan balance drove JPMorgan's (NYSE: JPM) first-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings to $4.63 per share. The bottom line handily surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.18.
The results excluded a $725 million or 19 cents per share increase in the FDIC special assessment charges. After including it, earnings were $4.44 per share.
The company's shares lost almost 3% in pre-market trading despite quarterly numbers widely beating expectations.
Jamie Dimon noted "Many economic indicators continue to be favorable." But he added a word of caution on inflation. He said, "there seems to be a large number of persistent inflationary pressures, which may likely continue."
Higher interest rates, decent consumer spending and a solid loan balance (up 18% year over year) continued to support NII during the quarter, while lower deposit balances hampered. Management reiterated its NII guidance of approximately $90 billion for this year compared with $89.3 billion in 2023.
Among other positives, Commercial Banking average loan balances were up 27% year over year. Further, debit and credit card sales volume increased 9%.
ortgage fees and related income jumped 24% to $275 million. We had projected the metric to be $251 million.
Further, as expected, the performance of the IB business improved. Equity underwriting fees jumped 51% and debt underwriting fees were up 58%. On the other hand, advisory fees declined 21%. Overall, total IB fees grew 21% from the prior-year quarter to $2 billion.