Bank of America: EPS 4Q. beats the estimates. Increase in interest margin offsets thud in investment banking commissions

Bank of America announced that it closed the fourth quarter of 2022 with an EPS of 85 cents, better than the 77 cents expected.

The U.S. bank’s revenue rose to $24.5 billion from $22.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 and an estimated $24.2 billion.

The Fed’s interest rate hike gave a boost to BofA’s profitability, causing its net interest margin to jump 29% year over year, to $14.7 billion.

However, StreetAccount analysts had expected a higher net interest income of $14.9 billion.

However, the NII increase helped offset the decline in investment banking fees, which was more than -50% to $1.1 billion, in line with expectations.

After an initial rally on Wall Street, Bank of America shares are down nearly 1% in premarket.