John Bogler
Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead
Thank you, Doug. During the third quarter, we further our efforts to remix the balance sheet toward more traditional core assets and liabilities with the overall size of the balance sheet remained relatively flat at 10.3 billion. On the asset side, the securities portfolio declined by nearly 237 million and the securities portfolio as a percentage of total assets declined to 20% from 22% last quarter and just for the first time within our long-term target range from 15% to 20% of assets. During the quarter, 258 million of CLO securities were called and 62.5 million of CLOs were purchased. Additionally, 25 million CMBS were sold. As loan growth continues over the next two quarters, we plan to continue shrinking the mix of CLO securities accordingly further easing us into our long-term targeted securities mix. The asset remix was supported by continued growth of core held for investment loan balances, which increased by 217 million for the quarter. While only a small amount of loans were sold this past quarter, we may selectively sell varying portions of the loan portfolio that necessary to manage interest rate risk, reduce concentrations in selective borrowers, or manage overall loan portfolio growth. Through the first three quarters of this year the annualized loan growth rate is 12%; and as Doug mentioned, we remain confident that the 2018 full-year growth rate will meet or exceed the long-run target of mid teens annual loan growth rate. Gross loan production totaled 907 million for the third quarter and new production yields on average were 5.22%, substantially above the blended portfolio loan yield of 4.70%. The higher loan production yields we saw in the third quarter were largely reflective of a higher macro rate environment, but also aided by a stronger mix of C&I loans. Net held for investment loan growth during the quarter was primarily driven by multifamily growth of 152 million and 126 million of growth in the single-family portfolio. The commercial real estate portfolio grew by 29 million while the C&I portfolio declined by 70 million. Total commercial loan balances collectively increased by 95 million or 2% from the prior quarter and are up 691 million or 17% from a year ago. At quarter end, commercial loan balances totaled 4.9 billion and represented 67% of the loan book. Over the past year, the gross loan portfolio has increased by over 1 billion or 16%, further supporting our belief that attaining our loan growth target is achievable. On the deposit side, we saw a strong core deposit growth of 171 million which was used to reduce FHLB advances by 165 million. The core deposit growth was largely centered on CDs which increased by 158 million over the prior quarter and savings accounts which increased by 94 million. Our particular importance non-interest-bearing checking account balances increased by 57 million for the quarter, reversing a declining trend over the past several quarters. As we continue to gain traction in various deposits gathering business unit, we expect to migrate the core deposit portfolio towards the lower cost basis relative to where we currently stand. Core deposits or non-broker deposits now account for 84% of total deposits, up from 80% at the end of the fourth quarter. On a more cautionary note, as we evaluate opportunities to operate more efficiently, we are in the process of assessing some of our depository relationships with the cost to monitor those accounts from a BSA perspective, starts to outweigh the benefits of holding the deposit. During the fourth quarter, we expect to migrate away from a number of these higher risk accounts which may depress the rate of growth for core deposits in the quarter, but will eventually allow us to be more efficient as we monitor our remaining and forthcoming depository relationships. Transitioning to the income statement, net income available to common stockholders for the third quarter was 3.8 million or $0.07 per diluted common share. For continuing operations, earnings per diluted common share were $0.06. These results include a number of items that we want to call to your attention. The Company's third quarter reported financial results included 8 million of net non-recurring expenses this included 7.6 million legal and indemnification expenses, a 1.5 million write-off of software and 553,000 of severance -related costs closely associated with the prior quarter's reduction in force. These costs were offset by $1.7 million insurance recovery related to ongoing legal and indemnification expenses. The legal expense associated with indemnification of past and current directors and officers is eligible for insurance reimbursement and the reimbursement is recorded as a contra expense as it is received. We expect to continue to incur legal and indemnification expenses for the next several quarters with the insurance reimbursement actually lagging. Eventually, in future quarters, we expect the level insurance reimbursements to exceed the legal and indemnification expenses. After adjusting for these non-recurring items, along with the amortization expense associated with our solid tax equity program, our operating expenses for the third quarter were 50.4 million for which we have provided a reconciliation on Page 8 of our slide deck. As Doug noted, we expect to continue investing our frontline business units which will offset some of the current and expected expense savings associated with the previously announced reduction in force. On September 17th, the Company redeemed the $40 million Series C preferred equity which carried an 8% dividend. The carrying value of the Series C preferred equity was net of the original issuance cost for the preferred or approximately 2.3 million less than the liquidation amount of the preferred equity. When the preferred was redeeming, this issuance cost was effectively treated as an additional preferred dividend by reducing net income available to common stockholders and amounted to $0.04 per diluted common share. The result of excluding the non-recurring items for the third quarter normalizing our tax rate to 20% and removing the impact preferred equity redemption puts us closer to an adjusted operating earnings figure for continuing operations of $0.27 per diluted common share, which we have detailed on Page 9 of today's deck. This compares to the prior quarter adjusted operating earnings of $0.23 per diluted common share computed on a consistent basis and shown in the prior quarter's earnings release presentation. Average interest-earning assets for the quarter were relatively unchanged from the prior quarter at 9.7 billion both the mix of assets from securities into loans and growth of earning assets are key to our plan to drive revenues higher over time. The net interest margin decreased by 8 basis points for the quarter to 2.93%, which was slightly below our expectations, but not surprising given the increasing competition for deposits that we're seeing in our markets. The average yield on interest-earning assets increased 8 basis points for the quarter driven by a 7 basis point increase in average loan yields to 4.70%. The securities portfolio average yield was unchanged at 3.78 with a flat portfolio reflecting of the static 3 month LIBOR indexed during the quarter. As a reminder, the CLO investments reset quarterly in our indexed to the 3 month LIBOR. The cost of interest-bearing liabilities increased 21 basis points to 1.81% primarily due to a 24 basis point increase in interest-bearing deposit cost and a 24 basis point increase in FHLB borrowing costs. The increased FHLB borrowing costs were driven by higher short-term rates on overnight advances, which totaled 735 million in the third quarter. Approximately 40% of our assets are variable rate with the rate reset occurring at least quarterly with nearly all the variable rate assets linked to LIBOR in the short end of the LIBOR curve holding flat for the quarter, the asset yield likewise remained relatively flat. Conversely, the cost of funds continue to increase during the quarter due to renewing CDs and the increased cost of overnight FHLB advances with the latter largely reflective of the June fed funds rate increase. As we communicated last quarter, we expect the NIM to be under pressure through the end of the year and until we deepen our traction gathering lower cost in deposits. Looking forward, if we maintain loan production yields at higher levels in our average portfolios yields and continue executing our lower cost deposit strategy, the NIM should subsequently begin to trend toward and then above 3%. Net interest income decreased by 1.6 million from the prior quarter to 71.2 million. For the third quarter, loan interest income increased by 3.5 million due to 111 million increase in average balances and 7 basis point increase in the average yield. This was partially offset by a decline of 856,000 in interest income on securities as the average balances declined by 116, with the average yield holding steady. On the liability side, interest expense on deposits increased by 4.8 million as the average balance increased by 227 million and the average rate increased by 24 basis points. Interest expense on FHLB advances decreased by 543,000 due to 299 million lower average balances, partially offset by 24 basis points of average higher rate. The composition of interest income continues to improve as commercial loan interest income now represents 56% of total interest income, compared to 50% a year ago. Loan interest income now comprises 79% of total interest income, up from 73% a year ago. For the quarter, we recorded a $1.4 million provision for loan losses, which is mostly reflected growth in the loan portfolio. The AAA balance coverage ratio of non-performing loans is 226%, while the overall AAA ratio is 80 basis points. Loan growth for the quarter was primarily multi-family and single-family categories, both of which are historically low lost products. Total non-interest expenses for the quarter were 61 million and included 8 million one-time expenses and 2.5 million expense from solar investments. Our current solar tax investment commitment is completed, but we may see some volatility in both the HLBV depreciation expense and the tax credit line until we receive the final equity fund details from the program sponsor. As noted non-interest expenses included a number of items that we do not consider to be core operating expenses. These items totaled 8 million and adjusted for these items and the depreciation of solar investments, core operating expenses came in at 50.4 million. Our efforts to simplify the business model and implement a more efficient operating structure has proven to be more beneficial than our original expectations. We continue to see opportunities to make our back office more efficient and plan to translate those cost savings into growth be of further investment into building out our client facing teams. Our adjusted efficiency ratio came in at 78% for the quarter and continues to reflect more of a revenue opportunity for us to the extent that we can improve our net interest margin, grow the earning asset base and begin to generate fee income from our expanded deposit and treasury management initiatives. Non-interest expenses to average assets came in at 1.99% from continuing operations for the third quarter after adjusting for the non-recurring expense items. Our capital position remains strong as the common equity Tier 1 capital ratio was 9.80% and Tier 1 risk-based capital totaled 13.15%. The quarter-over-quarter decline in the risk-based and leverage capital ratios is primarily due to the $40 million preferred equity redemption executed during the third quarter. Moving on to credit and asset quality metrics for the third quarter, our non-performing asset ratio for the quarter was 25 basis points, up 3 basis points in the prior quarter. This absolute low level of non-performers reflects the disciplined credit culture of the bank and remains very strong compared to peers and industry broadly. Non-performing assets to equity continued to remain strong at 2.7%. Delinquent loan metrics are strong despite the ratio of delinquent loans to total loans increasing to 49 basis points compared to 38 basis points at the end of the prior quarter. The prior quarter ratio represented an unusually low level and the current quarter is more reflective of the level of experienced in the fourth quarter of 2017 and the first quarter 2018. Net charge-offs for the quarter were 306,000 or 2 basis points. With that summary of our third quarter financial, I would now like to turn the call back over to Doug.