Chris Myers
Analyst · Sandler O'Neill and Partners. Please go ahead
Thank you, Christina. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us again this quarter. Yesterday, we reported earnings of $15.8 million for the first quarter 2015 compared with $25.6 million for the fourth quarter 2014 and $28.7 million for the first quarter of 2014. During the first quarter we repaid a $200 million fixed rate advance from the Federal Home Loan bank. The advance was scheduled to mature in November 2016 and carried an interest rate of 4.52%. The repayment of this advance resulted in a $13.9 million termination expense on a free tax basis. We made the repayments to the Federal Home Loan Banks to deleverage our balance sheet and reduce ongoing funding cost. We no longer carry any FHLB debt and are projecting an overall cost of funds to the bank of 11 to 12 basis points for the second quarter of 2015. We utilize cash reserves for the repayment. Despite utilizing $200 million in funds to repay the FHLB debt, we still provided $289 million in overnight funds to the Federal Reserve at quarter end. Earnings per share were $0.15 for the first quarter compared with $0.24 for the fourth quarter and $0.27 for the year ago quarter. The first quarter represented our 152nd good consecutive quarter of profitability and in our 102nd, to second quarter of paying a cash dividend to our shareholders. Based on a strong capital position and its ability of our earnings, our board of directors elected to increase our first quarter's cash dividend from $0.10 per share to $0.12 per share. Our tax exempt net interest margin was 3.59% for the first quarter compared with 3.58% for the fourth quarter of 2014 and down from 3.72% for the year ago quarter. The overall yield on investment securities continue to decline. And we also continue to see competitive pressure on rates in all classes of loans particularly commercial real estate secured loans. At March 31, 2015 we had $3.72 billion in total net loans compared with $3.82 billion in total loans at the December 31, 2014. Our Dairy and livestock loan portfolio decreased by a $106.6 million from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of 2015. We experienced our seasonal pay downs From Dairy customers who choose to defer revenue and our drop down on their lines of credit during the fourth quarter to prepaid free cost. Then they choose to repay this borrowings during the first quarter of the following year. Our new loan productivity for the first quarter was stronger than the year ago quarter. Pre-payment pressure on existing loans offset or improve loan production for the first quarter to produce a flat quarter in terms of overall loan growth, dairy loans aside. As part of our growth efforts, we recently hired a new team of bankers to meet our expansion in the Southern portion of California Central coast markets. Our newly hired six-person team has come together to form our new commercial banking center location in Oxnard, California. The Oxnard commercial banking center represent in an important and strategic expansion for the bank into the Ventura County and Santa Barbara County markets. We also hired a new team of bankers to continue to build out our downtime Los Angeles commercial banking center and are excited about their new potentials as well. In terms of loans quality nonperforming assets defined as non-accrual loan plus OREO were $30.1 million for the first quarter 2015, compared to $37.8 million for the prior quarter. The decrease was due to the reductions of $6.5 million in nonperforming commercial real estate loans, $1.4 million in commercial and industrial loans and $1 million in single-family residential mortgage loans. The allowance from loan of lease losses was $60.7 million for 1.63% of total loans at March 31, 2015; compared with $59.8 million or 1.57% of total loans at December 31, 2014. Net recoveries for the first quarter were $884,000 compared with net recoveries of 243,000 for the fourth quarter of 2014. At March 31, 2015 we have loans delinquent of 30 to 89 days of $1.9 million or 0.05% of total loans. Classified loans for the first quarter totaled $129.2 million and decreased by over $30 million from the prior quarter. We will have more detailed information on classified loans available in our first quarter Form 10-Q. Now I would like to discuss deposits. For the first quarter 2015 our non-interest bearing deposits increased to $3.13 billion compared with $2.87 billion for the prior quarter and $2.69 billion for the same quarter a year ago. This represents a $438.3 million or 16.3% year-over-year and 9.1% increase quarter over quarter. Non-interest-bearing deposits now represent 53% of our total deposits; this is in all-time high. Our total cost of deposits in repurchase agreements of 11 basis points for the first quarter remained unchanged from the prior quarter. At March 31, 2015 our total deposits and customer repurchase agreements were $6.46 billion compared with $5.74 billion for the same period year ago and $6.17 billion at December 31, 2014. Our ongoing objective remains to maintain a low cost stable source of funding for our loans and securities. Interest income, interest income for the first quarter of 2015, total $64.2 million compared with $65.3 million for the fourth quarter 2014. The $1.1 million quarter-over-quarter decline was primarily due to lower discount accretion and slightly lower investment income. Non-interest income was $8 million for the first quarter 2015 compared with $9.9 million for the fourth quarter 2014. The quarter-over-quarter decrease was primarily due to a $1.3 million decrease in gain-on sale of OREO assets and loans. Now expenses; we continue to closely monitor and manage our expenses. Non-interest expense for the first quarter was $44.5 million compared with $31.3 million for the fourth quarter. The increase was principally due to $13.9 million increase in debt termination expense resulting from the repayment of the $200 million FHLB fixed rate advance. Non-interest expense excluding the impact of the debt termination expense remained flat at 1.67% of average asset for the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter. Now I would like to turn the call over to Rich Thomas, our CFO to discuss our effective tax rate, investing portfolio and overall capital position. Rich?