Santander reports profit of €2.8B in Q4, beats expectations
Banco Santander said on Wednesday that its attributable profit in the fourth quarter of 2019 amounted to €2.8 billion, rising 35% from the same quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, total income remained unchanged in the same period at €12.3 billion while earnings per share were €0.16.
The bank's total income in the full-year 2019 was €49.2 billion as it rose 1.7% from 2018. However, attributable profit to parent fell 16.6% year-on-year to €6.5 billion while EPS fell 19.4% since last year to €0.36.
CEO Ana Botin said: "We are well on track to achieve our medium-term goals and expect to deliver high single digit average annual earnings per share growth over the next three years, while continuing to invest for the future. As a result of the very strong performance we are proposing to increase our cash dividend per share again this year, meaning that cash DPS has more than doubled since 2014."