$Northwest Bancshares(NWBI)$ released their 3Q24 report with an extraordinary increase in EPS of 550% compared to 2Q24. Don’t be fooled by these numbers, their EPS in 2Q24 was impacted by a significant loss on the sale of investments, and now the 3Q numbers are back to a more typical level. You can find more info about 2Q in my previous article. Their EPS dropped by 16.12% compared to 3Q23 primarily driven by an increase in provision expense for credit losses. Why would they expect more missed loan payments when the economy seems to be recovering relatively well and interest rates are going down? Let’s investigate! The bank reported an increase of 0.3% in loans receivable and