City Nat'l 1Q Profit Drops 96 Percent; Shares Fall

LOS ANGELES (AP) — City National Corp. shares fell Friday after it said first-quarter profit dropped 96 percent and that it planned to cut its dividend, but results were better than Wall Street expected.

After the close of trading on Thursday, the regional bank also said it expects to remain profitable throughout 2009, and at levels above the first quarter.

For the January-March period, City National earned $2 million, or 4 cents per share, after paying preferred dividends. This compares with earnings of $44 million, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier.

The 2009 results included a charge of $11.2 million, or 23 cents per share, for securities losses.

Excluding the charge, net income was $13.2 million, or 27 cents per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected earnings of 22 cents per share for the first quarter. Analysts typically exclude one-time charges from their estimates.

City National also said it was cutting its dividend by 60 percent to 10 cents per share from 25 cents.