Zions posts profit of $88.3 million in fourth quarter

Zions Bancorp on Monday reported fourth-quarter net income of $88.3 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.

The Salt Lake City-based bank said it had earnings of 36 cents per share.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 43 cents per share.

A year ago it lost $41.5 million, or 32 cents a share.

The financial holding company posted revenue of $559.8 million in the period, exceeding Street forecasts. Analysts expected $557.3 million, according to Zacks.

Zions was hit by falling oil and gas prices, which have hurt energy companies to which it lends. The bank put $12 million more into loan-loss reserves in the quarter in case it isn't paid back.

Of its total loans, 8 percent were to energy companies at the end of the year.

For the year, the company reported profit of $404.9 million, or $1.71 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.19 billion.

Zions shares were down 62 cents, or 2.5 percent, at $24.50 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report. Through the close of Monday's regular trading session, they had fallen 12 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has stayed nearly flat.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ZION at http://www.zacks.com/ap/ZION

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Keywords: Zions, Earnings Report