JPMorgan's Profit Hurt by Tax Law

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday that fourth-quarter profit fell 37% as one-time charges from the new tax law cut into profit at the nation's biggest bank by assets.

Shares fell 1% to $109.78 in premarket trading after the results were announced. The stock is up 29% over the past year.

The bank reported a profit of $4.23 billion, or $1.07 a share. Excluding estimated costs of $2.4 billion from the tax law, and other items, earnings were $6.7 billion, or $1.76 a share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of $1.69 a share. On a reported basis, or under generally accepted accounting principles, earnings per share were expected at $1.16, reflecting the tax-law charges.

JPMorgan, run by Chief Executive James Dimon, is one of a trio of big banks kicking off fourth-quarter earnings season for U.S. financial institutions. Together, the firms -- which include Wells Fargo & Co. and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. -- offer investors a snapshot of a quarter that analysts were expecting to be characterized by a slight pickup in loan growth and continued trading headwinds.

Despite expected charges related to the recently enacted tax overhaul, banks expect the reduction of the corporate rate to 21% from 35% will provide future gains.

Investors are of a similar mind. In the last four months of 2017, as the prospects for a tax overhaul brightened, JPMorgan's stock rose about 18%, compared with a 15% increase for the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index and about an 8% gain for the S&P 500.

Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 12, 2018 07:16 ET (12:16 GMT)