East-West Bancorp (EWBC) Tops Q4 EPS by 13c

East-West Bancorp (NASDAQ: EWBC) reported Q4 EPS of $1.29, $0.13 better than the analyst estimate of $1.16.

“2019 ended a transformational decade for East West, during which we more than doubled our asset size to $44.2 billion and grew both our commercial loans and our noninterest-bearing deposits nearly five-fold. Today, our loan portfolio is well-balanced between commercial, commercial real estate and residential mortgage loans, and our deposits are also well-balanced between commercial and consumer accounts,” stated Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of East West.

“Over the course of the decade, we expanded the breadth of our banking products and services in cash management, foreign exchange and interest rate risk hedging advisory, wealth management, and commercial lending solutions. As a result, we strengthened the resilience of our balance sheet, and achieved substantial earnings growth, increasing our diluted earnings per share by 458% to $4.61 in 2019, up from $0.83 in 2010.”

“In 2019, total loans grew $2.4 billion, or 7% year-over-year, to a record $34.8 billion as of December 31, 2019. Total deposits grew $1.9 billion, or 5% year-over-year, to a record $37.3 billion,” continued Ng. “Full year 2019 revenue of $1.7 billion grew by 5% year-over-year, a result of a strong contribution from fee income and record net interest income of $1.5 billion. Loan growth drove net interest income growth, overcoming net interest margin compression from three cuts to the fed funds rate.”

“Overall, we earned a return on average assets of 1.59% in 2019 and a return on average equity of 14.2%. Our growth and profitability reflect the strength of our diverse business model, which we are confident is a strong foundation for continued solid financial performance in the decade ahead,” concluded Ng.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on East-West Bancorp (EWBC) click here.

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