Northern Trust (NASDAQ: NTRS) reported Q4 EPS of $1.51, $0.20 better than the analyst estimate of $1.31.

“Our fourth quarter performance capped off a strong year,” said Michael O’Grady, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Both revenue and fee growth for the quarter were 15% and substantial across all of our businesses. The quarter represented our sixth consecutive quarter of accelerating fee growth on a year-over-year basis, reflecting the powerful combination of favorable macroeconomic conditions and organic growth.” O’Grady added, “Our full year performance resulted in record net income and improvements in profitability and returns. We ended the year with assets under custody/administration of $10.7 trillion and assets under management of $1.2 trillion, up 26% and 23%, respectively, compared to the prior year. During 2017, our C&IS business acquired UBS Asset Management’s fund administration units in Luxembourg and Switzerland, our Wealth Management business was named the Best Private Bank in the U.S. by the Financial Times Group for the eighth time in the last nine years, and our Asset Management business surpassed $1 trillion in assets under management. We also returned a record $895.6 million to common shareholders, through increasing our quarterly common stock dividend to $0.42 per share and repurchasing 5.8 million shares. We commend the extraordinary efforts of all of our employees for contributing to these results and, as we begin 2018, we will continue to focus on profitably growing our business.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Northern Trust (NTRS) click here.