BUZZ-WesBanco jumps after Q4 profit beats expectation

** Shares of regional lender WesBanco WSBC.O jump as much as 9.3%; last up 6.1% at $33.67

** Bank late Wednesday posted Q4 adjusted EPS of 71 cents, topping Wall Street expectation of 55 cents — LSEG

** WSBC's Q4 loans were up $1 bln, or 8.7%, compared with a year earlier, driven by commercial loan growth

** Q4 net interest income jumped 7.4% to $126.5 mln due to loan growth, and higher loan and securities yields

** Net interest margin (NIM) — a key gauge of profitability — was 3.03% in Q4, an improvement of 8 basis points sequentially and 1 basis point compared with a year earlier

** D.A. Davidson analyst Manuel Navas says WSBC is on the path to stand out on growth and NIM expansion this year compared to its peers

** Raymond James says it was a strong all-round quarter coupled with solid balance sheet growth

** WSBC stock rose 3.7% in 2024