People’s United Financial Inc saw a 44 percent drop in quarterly profit, as merger-related expenses weighed heavily on the bank’s financial performance, Reuters reports.
However, the Bridgeport-based bank hiked its annual dividend a penny, to 62 cents a share. The company, which has been talking about going for an acquisition, did not provide any details on that apart from reiterating its quest for deals.
People’s United, which has a cash pile of $2.82 billion, is one of the best capitalized banks in the United States.
“The bottom line is leveraging that excess capital. Everything else is almost a non-event, until they can grow through whole-bank deals or FDIC-assisted deals,” Amanda Larsen, a senior research associate with Raymond James, told Reuters.
People’s United spokesman Brent DiGiorgio had told Reuters last April the company was actively seeking acquisitions of like-minded banks in the corridor from Maine to Washington, D.C.
For the first quarter, People’s earned $13.6 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a profit of $24.2 million, or 7 cents a share, a year back.
The company said merger-related expenses lowered the profit by $29.2 million. Excluding these items, profit would have been 8 cents a share for the period.
People’s, which also owns Flagship Bank in Worcester, Mass., has $22 billion in assets.
