Bank of Valletta’s stock price has risen by 4.1% over the past two weeks leading up to its earnings call yesterday. The bank’s stock price has been going higher ever since it announced it intention to execute share buybacks next year. It has also consistently posted good earnings during this year.
Yesterday, the bank announced a 36.9% increase in its pre-tax profit for the third quarter of this year compared to last year reaching a total of €223.7 million. Operating income increased from €315.9 million to €359.2 million owing to increases in revenues in its lending activities, but the bulk of the profits seem to be coming from BOV’s bet on US treasuries which generated up to €92 million in interest payments from its €5.9 billion investment portfolio.
The bank says that its costs have increased by up to 4% with labour costs making part of the increase, although it claims that its cost-to-income ratio is less than last year’s period at 42.1%, and 4% lower than last year’s 46.1%.
The bank’s liquidity is still very strong with the bank having excess cash reserves and a net share book value of €2.4 being actually higher than the current market price at €1.76.
Newsroom
Leave a Reply