Washington Mutual reports $3.3 Billion loss for Quarter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Washington Mutual reported a $3.3 billion quarterly loss Tuesday -- far worse than Wall Street was anticipating -- as it set aside more money for bad loans.

The Seattle-based thrift reported a net loss of $6.58 a share, which included a charge related to a $7 billion capital raise the company announced in April.

Excluding the charge, WaMu reported a loss of $3.34 a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting the nation's largest savings and loan to report a loss of $1.05 a share on this basis.

Just a year ago, the company reported a profit of $830 million, or 92 cents a share.

Shares of Washington Mutual (WM, Fortune 500), however, gained 9% in after-hours trading on the news, after finishing the session more than 6% higher.

As the housing market has worsened, so have WaMu's fortunes.

Including Tuesday's results, the Seattle-based thrift has reported three consecutive quarterly losses. Scrambling for cash, the firm has cut its dividend twice, shut down some of its key business units and trimmed its payroll.

In April, WaMu announced a plans to raise $7 billion by selling an equity stake to an investment group led by the private-equity firm TPG.

Concerns about WaMu's fate surfaced again last week after Lehman Brothers analyst Bruce Harting wrote in a research note he suggested the company would report $26 billion in cumulative losses when the company delivered its quarterly results, and would have to "substantially" raise its loan loss reserves as a result.

Those concerns were compounded by comments from Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Richard Bove, who warned that WaMu is on the edge of the "danger zone."

That spooked WaMu investors, who were already fearing further bank failures following the high-profile collapse of the California-based mortgage lender IndyMac just days earlier.

WaMu issued a statement later that day stressing it was well capitalized with more than $40 billion in excess liquidity.

The latest figures from WaMu come just hours after the Charlotte-N.C.-based Wachovia (WB, Fortune 500) booked a nearly $9 billion loss.

WaMu's results also come at the tail end of what has been a tumultuous round of second-quarter earnings reports for the nation's banks.

A number of large financial institutions, most notably Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), reported quarterly figures that, while not good, still managed to beat analysts' expectations.

Wachovia reports $9 billion loss