Morningstar | Steady Results for SunTrust in Third Quarter, Maintaining Our Fair Value Estimate
No-moat SunTrust reported decent third-quarter results, and we are maintaining our fair value estimate of $68 per share. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.56, up 5% quarter over quarter. The return on tangible equity remained exceptional, at 18.1% for the quarter. This brings the year-to-date average to 17.14%, a significant improvement over last year’s average of roughly 12% for the same relative time period. SunTrust continues to make broad progress across multiple areas, maintaining expense discipline while also investing in back-end technology upgrades. These investments have helped drive better loan growth, and increasing net interest income was again the primary driver of revenue. We expect continued NIM expansion for the bank as rates rise, but at a decreased rate, as the bank is seeing more clients move to interest bearing deposits and deposit betas were increasing.One less positive area for earnings was that fee income remains pressured. Declining mortgage fees remained a drag, a trend affecting the entire industry, but almost all other fee income lines were also down quarter over quarter. There were several one-time items, but even after backing these out, fee growth has not been strong for SunTrust. The bank will continue to benefit from increasing rates, and therefore margins should continue to expand regardless, but the fee income side will become more important as the tail wind of rising rates begins to abate. Overall, we like the expense control, and we like the technology investments the bank has made, but we would like to see more growth in fees coming from commercial and retail relationships the bank has developed. Credit quality remained pristine, although growth was again outsized in the commercial real estate portfolio. We note that SunTrust is still under indexed within the CRE space, and we appreciate management’s commentary that it has not altered its credit box, but we believe this will be an area to watch going forward.
SunTrust Banks is a financial services holding company. Through its subsidiary, SunTrust Bank (the Bank), the company provides a line of financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities, both through branches (located primarily in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia) and through other digital and national delivery channels. The Bank provides deposit, credit, mortgage banking, and trust and investment services to its clients through a selection of channels, including branch, call center, Teller Connect? machines, automated teller machines, online, mobile, and tablet.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offer an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors.
Morningstar provides data on approximately 530,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 18 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries and had approximately $185 billion in assets under advisement and management as of June 30, 2016.
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