Glen Herrick
Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open
Thank you, Brad and good afternoon everyone. As you heard in previous comments we are pleased with our core operating result in the third quarter of fiscal 2018. On a GAAP basis we reported net income of $6.8 million in the third quarter, compared to $9.8 million in the prior year period. Diluted earnings per share were $0.70 in the fiscal third quarter of 2018, compared to a $1.04 in the fiscal third quarter of 2017. Reported earnings reflects a meaningful expenses recognized during the 2018 fiscal third quarter including $3 million of initial provision expense associated with the previously disclosed notice of insolvency received from ReliaMax Surety, which insured our purchase student loan portfolios, $2.4 million of merger related expenses, and an $800,000 expense related to the company's early termination of a vendor contract. In addition, GAAP earnings also included $1.7 million of amortization of intangibles assets and a $1.3 million of non-cash executive officer compensation expense. Importantly, we believe this loan provision expense is not a reflection of the underlying asset quality in that portfolio, while we expect to ultimately recover a substantial portion of honored insurance premiums. We cannot predict the timing and amounts of any such recovery, but it could easily take a year or longer and thus further provisioning may be required. Absent any recoveries we currently estimate additional provisioning of $600,000 to $750,000 in each of the next five quarters related to the insurers’ insolvency on the student loan portfolio. The expected sources of recoveries include assets from the liquidation of ReliaMax, a state guarantee fund, as well as other potential sources of recovery. Looking up the top line, revenue grew a 11% year-over-year and totaled $61.6 million for the third fiscal quarter. Net interest income was $28.4 million in the fiscal third quarter of 2018, up 14% increase over the same period last year due to an improved interest earning asset mix, primarily driven by significant loan growth. Net loans totaled $1.6 billion at June 30, 2018, an increase of 30% from a year prior. Growth was bolstered by a 31% increase in our commercial insurance premium finance portfolio and an increase of 25% in our community bank portfolio, where commercial real estate continues to be particularly strong along with increases in consumer and residential mortgage loans. The strength and discipline of our underwriting and risk management practices continues to be of utmost importance here at Meta. As such we maintain very strong asset quality metrics in our third fiscal quarter. Non-performing assets represented just 86 basis points of total assets at June 30, 2018. Outstanding NPAs were primary related to a non-performing agricultural loan relationship that we've discussed with you previously. We continue to expect to receive all principal, note interest and related expenses from that relationship. Excluding the reserve increase related to the insolvency of ReliaMax, Meta’s provision expense was $2.3 million in the third quarter of 2018, compared to $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2017, approximately $1.2 million of Meta’s third quarter provision supports the growth of tax services lending during this past filing season. Tax payer refund advance loans shall continue repayment activity throughout the calendar year, so the charge up period extends through December 31, 2018. Management views the overall 2018 tax season positively, given the loss of a significant tax partner that provided roughly half of the Company's 2017 refund advance loans. Turning to funding, we continue to view our growing low-cost core deposit base as a differentiator in the banking space, particularly in a raising rate environment. While Meta’s average cost of funds increased to 62 basis points in the fiscal third quarter, we maintained our advantage relative to the average cost of funds for similarly sized financial institutions. Our cost of deposits during the quarter was 29 basis points and just 4 basis points excluding wholesale deposits. Increased funding costs reflect Meta’s strategic utilization of wholesale deposits alongside Meta’s large, stable, non-interest bearing deposit base, compared to the same period last year to support continued organic loan growth. Meta’s net interest margin was 3.23% in the fiscal third quarter of 2018 on a tax equivalent basis. During the quarter, the Company sold longer term tax-exempt municipal securities and replaced them with floating-rate, government-related asset-backed securities. We also reduced our overall level of securities in anticipation of the Crestmark closing and accelerating growth in consumer lending. Because of this we anticipate a slight decrease in overall investment portfolio yield for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, but expect to benefit in the quarters to follow as short term rates are expected to continue to increase. This decrease in the overall portfolio yield, in addition to seasonal increases in the prepayment speeds of the MBS and mortgage-related municipal portfolio will likely result in a slightly lower NIM when excluding the effects of the pending Crestmark acquisition in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2018 and a slightly better relative NIM in the immediate succeeding quarters. Non-interest income also continues to grow, expanding 8% year-over-year to $33.2 million. Income from refund transfer product fees in the quarter increased 27% year-over-year in part due to payment processing timing as anticipated IRS delays flowed into April and shifted some of that revenue into our third quarter. While deposit fees grew $1.1 million compared to the third fiscal quarter of last year, the increase was primarily related to a transition of some card fee income to deposit fee income. This income statement geography change also contributed to the slight decrease in card fee income. In addition, we do expect growth in card fee income to be moderated by declining residual fee income throughout fiscal year 2018. I also wanted to comment briefly on Meta Capital LLC, our corporate venture capital arm, which we mentioned in our earnings release this quarter. This wholly owned subsidiary of MetaBank was formed in April 2017 and established to help drive innovation by investing primarily in financial and technology companies. We consider direct and indirect investments to compliment, or serve as an alternative to de novo and strategic M&A growth. Through June 30, 2018 Meta Capital has invested a total of $5 million in early-to-mid-stage financial technology companies, with an additional $500,000 in outstanding investment commitments. While not a material driver to our earnings, we have been pleased with the opportunities we have evaluated and in some instances pursued thus far and see further prospects to diversify investments in new and emerging technologies. Total operating expense excluding merger related costs in fiscal 2018 and 2017 was $46.7 million in the third quarter of this year, compared to $42 million in the same period of last year. The year-over-year increase primarily reflects additional compensation costs which are related to hires made to support our national consumer lending initiatives and the pending Crestmark acquisition, and to a lesser degree to support other business line expansions. As we continue to invest to support the growth of our company, we are focused on expense management wherever possible. For example, we are leveraging enhanced efficiencies in tax space as we continue to integrate our tax divisions. Overall, we continue to expect opportunities for improved efficiencies in fiscal 2019 and even more so in fiscal 2020. We believe our third quarter results leave us well-positioned to deliver continued strong financial performance in the fourth fiscal quarter and beyond. With that I'll turn the call back over to Tyler for any closing comments before we take your questions.