Zions Bancorp reports Q1 EPS 96c, consensus 98c

Reports Q1 provision for credit losses $13M vs. $45M last year and Q1 net charge-offs of $6M vs. no net charge-offs last year. Tangible book value per common share increased to $29.34 from $24.85. CEO Harris Simmons commented, “Q1 results continued to reflect the adverse impact on net interest income of the bank failures a year ago, with taxable-equivalent revenue down 11.3% from the prior year. We nevertheless saw incremental improvement in our net interest margin and earning asset growth, and adjusted operating expenses (which exclude an additional FDIC special assessment related to last year’s bank failures) increased a modest 0.4% from last year’s quarter…We continue to expect that ultimate realized loan losses will be very manageable over the remainder of the year, as indicated by annualized net charge-offs for the quarter which were a very low 0.04% of loans and leases. Immediately following quarter end, we completed a very successful conversion of all the deposit accounts at Amegy Bank and Nevada State Bank to our new TCS BaNCS platform. We anticipate completing the conversion of substantially all remaining accounts later this summer…”