UMB Financial reports a 22.3 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings

Earnings fell 22.3 percent in the fourth quarter at Kansas City-based UMB Financial Corp., the banking company said Tuesday.

It earned $26.9 million, or 59 cents a share, in October, November and December, compared with $34.7 million, or 77 cents a share, a year earlier.

The company’s announcement said the difference mostly reflected unrealized losses on Prairie Capital Management’s equity method investments contrasted with unrealized gains reported a year ago.

Chief executive Mariner Kemper said in the announcement that the Prairie Capital effect and others had masked the strength of UMB’s operations. He cited double-digit loan growth from a year ago, multiple sources of revenue and strong customer relationships.

“Expectations for continuing headwinds in 2015 only reinforce the value of our differentiated business model, which is time tested, and we believe our long-term performance will continue to set us apart from our peers,” Kemper said.

For all of 2014, UMB earned $120.7 million, down 9.9 percent from $133.9 million in 2013.

The company ended 2014 with $17.5 billion in assets, including $7.5 billion in loans and $7.3 billion in investment securities.

This story was originally published January 27, 2015 at 6:27 PM with the headline "UMB Financial reports a 22.3 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings."