Analyst Note
| Eric Compton, CFA |Narrow-moat-rated Truist reported first-quarter earnings of $0.99 per share, beating the Factset consensus of $0.93. Top-line revenue of $5.4 billion was essentially in line with consensus of $5.48 billion. Similar to peers, pressure on fees emerged, and as a result revenue was down 4% sequentially rather than the original guide of 1%-2%. This was primarily driven by mortgage-related fees dropping to a new postpandemic low, while investment banking fees were also down substantially. Adjusted expenses came in better than expectations, being roughly flat sequentially rather than increasing. Adjusted ROTCE, excluding reserve releases, was roughly 20%, essentially already hitting the post-merger target of low-20s.