UMB posts 10 percent profit jump, ups dividend

Higher deposits help push UMB Financial's third-quarter profit up 10 percent

• On 2:15 pm EDT, Tuesday October 27, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Bank holding company UMB Financial Corp. on Tuesday reported a 10 jump in its third-quarter profit, fueled in part by a jump in total deposits.

The company also boosted its quarterly dividend by 5.7 percent to 18.5 cents per share. Investors responded by pushing the company's stock up $2.18, or 5.6 percent, to $41.33 in afternoon trading.

For the three months ending Sept. 30, UMB said it earned $24 million or 59 cents per share. That compared to $21.8 million or 53 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

The performance beat Wall Street expectations. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 49 cents per share.

Total deposits grew to $7.9 billion as of Sept. 30, compared to $7.1 billion a year earlier.

Average earning assets increased by $1.3 billion, or 16.9 percent, compared to the third quarter of 2008. The increase was due to a $143.8 million, or 3.4 percent, increase in average loans and a $1 billion, or 32.2 percent, increase in total securities, UMB said.

Noninterest expenses increased $5.4 million, or 4.9 percent, to $115.3 million, in part because of higher employee base salaries, higher commissions and bonuses and higher cost of benefits.