M&T Bank 1Q Profit Falls 68 Percent, Shares Slide

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, whose earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items, had forecast a profit of 71 cents per share in the latest quarter, on average.

Shares of M&T fell $4.54, or 8.7 percent, to $47.97 in morning trading.

The quarter's $100 million chargeoffs represent an annualized 0.83 percent of average loans outstanding, up from 0.38 percent in last year's first quarter, but down from 1.17 percent in the fourth quarter.

Rene Jones, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the chargeoff decline compared with the fourth quarter "will likely stand out favorably when compared to the top U.S. regional banks. Despite that improvement, we considered it prudent to build the allowance for credit losses given the state of the economy."

M&T said the higher chargeoff rate for the past two quarters were driven by the recession, and declines in residential real estate values.

Net interest income, or the difference between how much it costs a bank to borrow money and how much it receives from lending money to customers, was $452.7 million, down 7 percent from $484.6 million in the year-ago quarter.