Bank of America posted a 17% profit jump in Q1 as trading and interest income surged

First-quarter results from Bank of America $BAC came in ahead of analyst expectations on both revenue and profit, with the lender's $8.6 billion in net income — equal to $1.11 per share — marking the strongest earnings-per-share figure the company had produced in roughly twenty years. The consensus forecast from LSEG had called for $1.01 per share.

Revenue for the quarter reached $30.43 billion, a 7.2% increase from a year earlier, driven by gains in net interest income, trading, investment banking, and asset management fees.

The biggest outperformer across the bank's business lines was equities trading, where a surge in client activity amid volatile markets pushed revenue up 30% to $2.83 billion — a result that cleared the StreetAccount forecast by around $350 million and capped what CNBC described as the trading desk's strongest quarter in a decade and a half. Total sales and trading revenue rose 13% to $6.4 billion, according to Reuters, helped by record equities trading volumes as volatile markets prompted increased client activity.

A rebound in dealmaking lifted investment banking fees 21% to $1.8 billion, edging past the $1.73 billion StreetAccount consensus. Among the quarter's notable mandates, the bank played an advisory role in three multibillion-dollar deals: McCormick's $42.7 billion move to acquire Unilever's food division, Boston Scientific $BSX's $14.9 billion deal for medical device manufacturer Penumbra, and Devon Energy $DVN's $26 billion combination with Coterra Energy.

On the lending side, the gap between what the bank collects on loans and what it pays depositors widened to $15.9 billion — a 9% year-over-year gain that came in above the $15.67 billion analyst forecast, per CNBC, while Reuters put the figure at $15.7 billion. Growth in both loan and deposit volumes, along with the gradual repricing of fixed-rate assets and contributions from markets activity, all supported the advance.

Fixed income was the sole division to disappoint, with its roughly $3.5 billion in quarterly revenue falling short of what analysts had anticipated by approximately $330 million on the StreetAccount measure.

Borrower health remained intact across the portfolio. At $1.3 billion, the quarter's loan-loss provision came in well under both the prior-year figure of $1.5 billion and the analyst consensus by roughly $190 million. Separately, the share of loans written off as uncollectible ticked down six basis points to 0.48%, and both the consumer banking and global wealth management units saw their net income climb by more than a fifth.

"We remain watchful of evolving risks. However, we saw healthy client activity, including solid consumer spending and stable asset quality, indicating a resilient American economy," CEO Brian Moynihan said in a statement.

Bank of America's result follows a strong quarter from other major U.S. lenders. JPMorgan $JPM Chase posted a 13% rise in first-quarter profit, also beating estimates on the strength of record trading revenue and investment banking fees, though CEO Jamie Dimon flagged what he described as an increasingly complex set of risks facing the global economy. Goldman Sachs $GS reported a 19% rise in profit for the same period, with its equities desk posting a record quarter, though fixed income came in weaker there as well.

Bank of America stock rose 1.5% in premarket trading on the day of the announcement.