Strong financial results.
U.S. Bancorp delivered strong financial results in 2003, the culmination of five years of transformation and integration, during which we forged a company uniquely positioned to generate consistent earnings and revenue growth.
• Earnings per share increased 17.6% over 2002
• Record net income increased 17.8% over 2002
• Industry-leading Return on Assets of 1.99%
• Industry-leading Return on Equity of 19.2%
• Industry-leading Tangible Common Equity of 6.5%
• Positive debt rating changes by the rating agencies
Growing U.S. Bancorp.
With virtually all integration and merger-related activities behind us, we are now focused solely on growing U.S. Bancorp by leveraging the breadth and depth of the powerful franchise we have built. Our five-year transformation allowed us to gain access to high-growth markets, to solidify strong regional positions and to build a national platform. During our integration process, we accelerated our cost control leadership. We are now extending that cost and execution leadership, as well as making significant strategic investments in our highest-potential businesses, and reaffirming our focus on delivering high-quality service.
Achieving our goals to build a stronger corporation.
I am pleased to tell you that U.S. Bancorp accomplished the performance, credit quality and other goals we had previously committed to achieving. We met financial objectives — in particular, revenue growth, expense management, net interest margin and earnings per share.
In addition, and perhaps most importantly, we continue to show improvement in overall credit quality, a direct result of all we have done in the past two years to reduce this corporation’s risk profile. We also completed the spin-off of Piper Jaffray, further reducing risk and volatility in our business. Finally, we began a major expansion of our distribution channels in fast-growing markets within our franchise through the previously announced in-store branch partnerships with Safeway/Vons, Smith’s and Publix.
140 years of creating value for shareholders.
We have targeted returning 80 percent of our earnings to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases.
The 17 percent common stock dividend increase approved by our Board of Directors and announced in December 2003 is a continuation of a long history of paying significant dividends, as well as a reflection of the Board’s confidence in this corporation’s future success.
U.S. Bancorp, through its predecessor companies, has increased its dividend in each of the past 32 years and has paid a dividend for 140 consecutive years.
In addition to the common stock dividend discussed above, as part of the December 2003 spin-off of Piper Jaffray, U.S. Bancorp distributed common shares of the new Piper Jaffray Companies in the form of a special dividend to eligible U.S. Bancorp shareholders.
Also in December 2003, our Board of Directors approved authorization to repurchase 150 million shares of outstanding U.S. Bancorp common stock during the next two years.
These specific steps were undertaken to increase the value of your shares; in addition, we manage this corporation with the long-term value of your investment as our paramount objective. It’s the reason we come to work each day.
Sincerely,
Jerry A. Grundhofer
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
U.S. Bancorp
February 27, 2004
|
|
|
