SunTrust Banks Inc posted its second straight quarterly loss on Thursday, hurt by charges related to the collapsing real estate market.

The U.S. southeast regional bank said net loss applicable to common shareholders was $875.4 million, or $2.49 per share, compared with a profit of $281.6 million, or 81 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding the goodwill charge, Atlanta-based SunTrust said the loss was $160.6 million, or 46 cents per share.

Results included a $714.8 million goodwill charge, which SunTrust said reflected deteriorating real estate and economic conditions that reduced the value of mortgage and commercial real estate assets. Goodwill typically arises in acquisitions.

SunTrust is still working through credit and earnings challenges as the weak economy continues to take a toll on performance, Chief Executive James Wells said in a statement.

The bank set aside $994.1 million for bad loans, up 78 percent from a year earlier, while net charge-offs more than doubled to $610.1 million.

Loans that are not performing, or otherwise not accruing interest, increased $701 million from the end of the year to $4.64 billion, or 3.75 percent of total loans. Nonperforming assets totaled $5.25 billion.

Residential mortgages and home equity lines of credit accounted for 54 percent of nonperforming loans, with a large portion of the weakness in Florida, SunTrust said.

SunTrust posted a net loss of $815.2 million before accounting for payment of preferred stock dividends. Analysts expect the bank to lose money in every quarter this year.

Shares of SunTrust closed Wednesday at $15.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares are down 48 percent this year, compared with a 27 percent drop in the KBW Bank Index <.BKX>.

SunTrust has taken $4.9 billion from the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank is one of 19 undergoing government stress tests to measure its need for capital in a deep recession. Results are due May 4.

Earlier this year, SunTrust lowered its quarterly dividend 81 percent to 10 cents per share. The bank's ratio of tangible common equity to tangible assets ended March at 5.82 percent, above the 5 percent that some analysts prefer.

SunTrust ended March with $179.1 billion of assets. It operates about 1,694 branches in 11 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Derek Caney)

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