Commerce Bancshares Income Outweighs Loan Losses

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bank holding company Commerce Bancshares Inc. on Wednesday said its profit for the third quarter more than doubled as income rose more than the losses from unpaid loans.

The company reported net income of $51.6 million, or 66 cents per share, compared with $24.7 million, or 32 cents per share a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 51 cents per share.

Shares in Commerce Bancshares rose $2.79, or 7.5 percent, to $39.92 in afternoon trading.

Charge-offs — loans written off as not being repaid — rose to $30.9 million from $18.7 million in the third quarter the year before. Nearly every category saw an increase from the year before including business loans, mortgages, real estate construction and consumer credit card loans.

The more than $12 million increase in loan charge-offs was more than offset, however, by an increase in banking income.

Net interest income, the difference between how much it costs a bank to borrow money and how much it receives from lending to customers, rose nearly $12 million to $163.5 million from $151.6 million.