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Washington Federal Announces Quarterly Earnings Per Share Of $0.56
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Washington Federal, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAFD) (the "Company"), parent company of Washington Federal Bank, N.A. ("WaFd Bank"), today
About this update from Wafd, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":" SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nWashington Federal, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAFD) (the \"Company\"), parent company of Washington Federal Bank, N.A. (\"WaFd Bank\"), today announced quarterly earnings of $44,871,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, an increase of 23% from $36,377,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. After the effect of dividends on preferred stock, net income available for common shareholders was $0.56 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, compared to $0.47 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, a $0.09 or 19% increase in fully diluted earnings per common share. Return on common shareholders equity for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 was 8.17% compared to 7.19% for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. Return on assets for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 was 0.93% compared to 0.89% for the same quarter in the prior year.\n\nPresident and Chief Executive Officer Brent J. Beardall commented, \"We want to acknowledge the significant progress made in the vaccine deployment and the resulting decrease in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. We are thankful for the hard work and sacrifice of so many that has made this possible. One year ago, as we entered this global pandemic, WaFd Bank began planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Many were predicting significant loan losses as the economic hardships of the pandemic impacted both individuals and businesses. We are grateful to report that thus far not only did those losses not materialize, we actually experienced over $3 million of net recoveries. An argument could be made portions of our loan portfolio are stronger today than one year ago as real estate values in most of our markets have increased substantially – which translates into lower loan-to-values and therefore, lower risk.\n\n\"Another broad assumption was that asset growth would be difficult at best given historically low interest rates. Despite the onslaught of loan repayments, over the last year WaFd Bank has grown loans outstanding by $1.1 billion or 9.0%, with loan originations up 49%. That is an astounding increase when you consider the same period last year was also a record year and during the past 12 months, most of our commercial banking team and corporate employees are working from home.\"\n\nBeardall continued, \"As we recognized that the financ...