Fifth Third's Third Quarter Earnings Report

Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq:FITB) announced its results for the most recent quarter on October 18, 2012. Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company which conducts its lending, deposit gathering, transaction processing and service advisory activities through its subsidiaries.

Investors care about earnings because they drive stock prices. Strong earnings generally result in the stock price moving up and vice versa. SEE: 12 Things You Need To Know About Financial Statements

The Numbers: Fifth Third announced 38 cents per share versus the 35 cents per share estimate. Fifth Third's net income for the third quarter was $354 million. According to the reported number, this is down 5.9% from last year's figures.



Management Quote: "Third quarter earnings were highlighted by solid net interest income results and continued strong mortgage banking revenue, contributing to an ROA of 1.23 percent and a return on average common equity of 10.4 percent," said Kevin Kabat, CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp. "We had success across our commercial bank and consumer lending businesses, with double-digit growth in corporate banking revenue, up 16 percent year-over-year, and mortgage banking revenue, up 13 percent year-over-year."



Looking Ahead: When earnings estimates stay consistent leading up to earnings season, this usually shows analysts accurately predicted earnings estimates and business is stable. Be cautious though as this may also be a warnings sign that earnings could come at a huge surprise to the upside or downside as analyst did not correctly predict earnings. Steady earnings estimates mean there is not enough change going on with the company to make analysts change their opinions. When earning estimates are steady, investors can look at the revenue trend for a more fundamental indicator. For the fiscal year, the average estimate has moved up from $1.47 a share to $1.50 over the last ninety days.