01:06 PM EDT, 07/28/2025 (MT Newswires) -- A majority of US banks have surpassed Wall Street's second-quarter expectations amid broad-based revenue growth, driving a potential upside bias for 2025 and 2026 consensus estimates, Raymond James & Associates said Monday.

Around 295 of 462 publicly traded banks with more than $750 million in assets have reported their latest quarterly results in the ongoing cycle through Friday, with 79% of them topping consensus forecasts. That's above the beat rate of 69% in the previous quarter and 70% in the year-ago quarter, according to the brokerage.

US lenders' results have so far showed "robust" revenue improvement, increasing 4.9% at the median on a sequential basis, with "well-balanced" net interest income and fee revenue, Raymond James said in a client note. Median sequential net interest income growth was 4.5% in the June quarter, up from 0.9% in the previous three-month period, driven by declining cost of funds and improving earning asset yields.

"With broader macroeconomic uncertainty clearing as well as favorable core fundamental trends, consensus estimates possess a positive bias, with a net 43% of 2025 estimates raised and net 41% of 2026 estimates raised," Raymond James analysts, including Daniel Tamayo, said.

The median net interest margin expanded 11 basis points sequentially to 3.43%, compared with a five-basis-point improvement in the year-ago quarter. The expansion was driven by robust loan growth and fixed-asset repricing, while benefits from lowered funding costs "wane," according to Raymond James.

"Stronger revenues thus far have led to improved profitability metrics from the (last quarter)," Tamayo said.

Earlier in the month, JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) , Wells Fargo ( WFC ) , Goldman Sachs ( GS ) , Morgan Stanley ( MS ) and Citigroup ( C ) all reported second-quarter results above market expectations. JPMorgan ( JPM ), Goldman and Citi all recorded investment banking gains, while Morgan Stanley ( MS ) reported a 5% fall for the division amid declines in advisory and fixed-income underwriting.

Bank of America's ( BAC ) second-quarter earnings exceeded the Street's view, but revenue fell short of expectations. The lender's investment banking fees decreased 9% in the quarter.

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