Deutsche Bank shares shed 3% as lender's swing back to profit fails to impress

Deutsche Bank shares dipped on Wednesday, as the lender's return to profit in the third quarter failed to impress.

Net profit attributable to shareholders came in at 1.461 billion euros ($1.58 billion) over the third quarter, compared with the 1.047 billion euros anticipated in a LSEG poll of analysts.

Revenue hit 7.5 billion euros, against a LSEG analyst forecast of 7.338 billion euros.

Other third-quarter highlights included:

In a note, RBC analysts said that the increase in provisions for credit losses was "disappointing although not totally unexpected," describing revenues in the bank's core divisions as "slightly soft," with the performance in investment banking standing out as "stronger."

"Given the relatively strong run into numbers, the shares might see some weakness on the back of the Q3 update," RBC said.

Deutsche Bank shares were down 3.3% by 08:57 a.m. London time.

Germany's largest lender had posted a 143-million-euro loss in the second quarter, at the time announcing it would not embark on a second share buyback program this year and factoring in a provision for its long-running lawsuit over its acquisition of its Postbank division. Some 60% of plaintiffs in the litigation, pillared on allegations that Deutsche Bank underpaid for its purchase, have since settled with the German bank in August.

"We're looking to turn the page really this year on all of the legacy items that we've had over time, because we don't want to be surprising investors with the type of provision that we had to build in the second quarter," Deutsche Bank Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told CNBC's Carolin Roth on Wednesday.

The partial release of 440 million euros of litigation provisions in the third quarter helped boost profit,