Bank of America Posts Flat Results for Quarter

Bank of America Corp. reported flat earnings for the second quarter as a drop in investment banking offset gains in consumer banking and credit cards.

Two other large banks, FleetBoston Financial Corp. and Bank of New York Co., both reported higher earnings as revenue from nontraditional banking services, such as managing assets, grew.

Bank of America, the nation’s No. 2 bank in terms of assets behind Citigroup, posted earnings of $2.063 billion, or $1.23 a share, for the quarter ended June 20, in line with the expectations of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. The bank earned $2.06 billion, or $1.15 a share, in the year-earlier period, when there were more shares outstanding.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank said income from consumer and commercial banking, which make up more than half of its business, rose 5%, and income from credit cards rose 13%. A weaker stock and bond market contributed to an 11% decline in investment banking income.

Net interest income for the bank grew 1% to $4.71 billion because of loan growth despite higher interest rates.

FleetBoston’s earnings rose 10% to $772 million, or 83 cents a share, a penny better than analyst expectations, boosted by a 44% jump in profit from its global banking and financial services sector.

Boston-based Fleet, which owns investment bank Robertson Stephens and brokerage firm Quick & Reilly, said growth was driven by strength in those operations as non-interest income grew 17% to $2.05 billion.

Bank of New York’s second-quarter profit rose 10% to $356 million, or 48 cents a share, edging analysts’ estimates of 47 cents, lifted by further growth in its asset management business and payment processing.

Shares in Bank of America slipped 63 cents to close at $46.88, while Fleet closed off $2.25 at $35.50 and Bank of New York closed up $1.47 at $47.41, all on the New York Stock Exchange.

At a Glance

Other earnings, excluding one-time gains or charges unless noted, include:

* Corning Inc., the No. 1 maker of glass used in fiber-optic networks, said second- quarter net income nearly doubled to $271.1 million, or 94 cents a share, from $136.5 million, or 52 cents, on demand for glass used in computer displays and telecommunications products. The results well exceeded analyst estimates of 80 cents. Sales surged 58% to $1.8 billion.

* Delphi Automotive Systems Corp., the world’s largest auto-parts maker, said second-quarter earnings rose 7.6% to $424 million, or 75 cents a share, in line with estimates, on lower costs and strong demand for parts by auto makers. Sales rose 1.2% to $7.78 billion.

* Genentech Inc. said second-quarter profit increased 6.9% to $78.2 million, or 29 cents a share, in line with analyst forecasts, on a 10% rise in revenue to $413.6 million. Sales of breast cancer drug Herceptin increased 44% to $66.7 million, below the $75 million analysts expected. In the previous quarter, Herceptin sales were $68.7 million. Sales of Rituxan, which Genentech developed and markets with Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp., rose 38% to $102.8 million, beating the analyst estimate of $94 million.

* Go2Net Inc., which runs a network of Internet sites including Silicon Investor and MetaCrawler, said profit more than tripled to $10.1 million, or 22 cents a share, from $3.06 million, or 7 cents, a year ago, well beyond the average estimate of 15 cents a share from analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. Revenue quadrupled to $23 million from $5.73 million.

* Hughes Electronics Corp., the largest maker of satellites and a unit of General Motors Corp., said its second-quarter loss narrowed to $69.1 million from $97.6 million in the year-ago quarter as revenue rose 450% to $1.84 billion. Hughes doesn’t report losses on a per-share basis. Hughes unit PanAmSat Corp. said second-quarter profit jumped 94% to $59.2 million, or 39 cents a share, as it sold more space to Internet and data-service providers. Revenue jumped 81% to $322.2 million.

* Johnson Controls Inc. said fiscal third-quarter earnings rose a better-than-expected 20% to $133.4 million, or $1.45 a share, 5 cents better than estimates, on a 4.8% gain in sales to $4.39 billion. The maker of automobile seats and interiors also said it will add six new plants by the end of the year, creating about 1,200 jobs, to meet demand.

* Novellus Systems Inc., whose equipment builds layers of circuits on semiconductors, said second-quarter profit surged sixfold to $75.7 million, or 56 cents a share, beating estimates of 52 cents, as sales more than doubled to $326 million from $130.9 million.

* Whirlpool Corp.’s second-quarter profit rose 22% to $121 million, or $1.66 a share, matching forecasts, despite a 1.2% decline in sales to $2.59 billion. The company benefited from sales of high-end products, analysts said. The company warned, however, that analyst estimates for the entire year were too optimistic. It now expects earnings to rise 20% to 25% from the previous year. Analysts on average had forecast earnings to rise 28% to $6.86 a share.