April 17 (Lagos) - First Bank exceeded analyst expectations when it announced its financial results for 2011. Over the past week, some traders and analysts had questioned the bank over a brief delay in reporting its results and asked if everything was ok at the bank.

Today, First Bank announced that its 2011 pre-tax profit jumped 48.28 % to N 50.06 billion ($318.09 million), from N 33.76 billion in 2010. Top line revenue grew by 27.68% to N 296.33 billion from N 232 billion in 2010. Net income jumped to N 45.7 billion from N 31.1 billion a year earlier. These are blowout results from First Bank and a sign of strength and future growth.
 

First Bank has proposed a dividend of 80 kobo per share to its shareholders which will have to be approved by the shareholders. Shares of First Bank closed higher by 4.96% today at N 9.72 at the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos. Shares have been dragged lower over the past 3 weeks because some analysts questioned the delay in releasing its results but now we can expect these shares to climb past the N 11 mark.

Dividend of 80 kobo per share gives us a dividend yield of 8.2% at today's closing price.