By Katherine Hamilton

Home BancShares posted higher fourth-quarter earnings and its annual revenue surpassed $1 billion for the first time, the company said.

The bank holding company on Wednesday posted a profit of $100.6 million, or 51 cents a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with $86.2 million, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings were 50 cents, behind the 52 cents forecast by analysts, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 5% to $258.4 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast revenue of $257 million.

Its annual profit for the full year of 2024 was $402.2 million, up from $393 million in 2023. Annual revenue was $1.02 billion, in line with analyst expectations.

At the end of the fourth quarter, Home BancShares had $110.9 million in loans on deferral as a result of hurricanes Helene and Milton.

In the fourth quarter, the company doubled its reserves for loan losses resulting from hurricanes Helene and Milton. It added $16.7 million to its provisions, on top of an allotment of the same size it made in the third quarter.

Hame BancShares paid off its $700 million advance from the Federal Reserve's Bank Term Funding Program in the fourth quarter. This improved the net interest margin by six basis points, it said.

Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 15, 2025 17:23 ET (22:23 GMT)

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