Nevada State Bank’s parent sees first-quarter profits rise

Zions Bancorp said Monday that it saw earnings rise in the first quarter as the bank holding company continued to benefit from improving credit quality.

The Salt Lake City-based company operates Nevada State Bank and seven other banks in Western and Southwestern states.

Harris Simmons, chairman and CEO of Zions Bancorp, expects improvement in credit quality to continue, while the company also has seen “somewhat better loan growth over the past couple of quarters.” Still, Simmons said he sees “some renewed signs of loan pricing pressure.”

“However, we do expect continued bottom-line improvement as we take numerous actions over the next several quarters to reduce the cost of our capital and debt financing,” Simmons said.

The company reported earnings of $88.3 million, or 48 cents per share, compared with $25.5 million, or 14 cents per share, for the first quarter of 2012. Revenue decreased 1.8 percent to $593.3 million.

Analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance projected earnings of 39 cents on revenue of $553.9 million.

Loan-loss provisions were a negative $29 million, compared with loan-loss provisions of $15.7 million a year earlier. Simmons attributed it to the continuing improvement in credit quality and continued improvement in loss severity from classified loans.

The company posted $6.4 million for unfunded lending commitments in the first quarter.

Total loans increased slightly year-over-year to $37.76 billion from $37.66 billion amid growth in commercial and consumer loans. Zions Bancorp reported assets of $53.86 billion in the first quarter, down from $54.26 billion at the end of 2012.

The company reported earnings after Wall Street closed. Shares closed Monday down 10 cents, or 0.42 percent, to $23.61 and were down 3 cents, or 0.13 percent, in recent after-hours trading.

The company recently moved to increase its shareholder payout. Zions Bancorp will distribute 4 cents per share of its common stock May 30 to holders of record on May 23. The dividend is about four times greater than the company’s previous distribution of 1 cent, which had been distributed every quarter since August 2009.