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 $27.9 million for the third quarter of 2015, our second highest quarter of earnings on record. This compares to $26.8 million for the second quarter of 2015 and $24.3 million for the third quarter of 2014. On October 14 we announced that we entered into a merger agreement with County Commerce Bank pursuant to which County Commerce Bank will merge into Citizens Business Bank. We're excited about this acquisition as County Commerce Bank is a strong community bank with four branch location in the Greater Ventura County area with approximately 250 million in assets. This should be an excellent strategic and geographic fit for our bank. Why? Number one, this had four new locations and expands our footprint up to 101 Freeway corridor into the Central Coast region, enabling us to easily spread northward into Santa Barbara and eventually beyond. Number two, this is an affluent market place good for cross selling our products and services especially Citizens Trust. Number three, we believe this market has strong community banking, Agri business and business banking opportunities. And finally four, we believe this bank has excellent credit quality. In addition, I would like to also add that is this was the best running bank in terms of performing due diligence from an acquisition perspective that we have seen in my tenure of CEO. It is also important to note that we operate on the same data processing system Fighter [ph] so integration should be easier. The County Commerce Bank acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016. This acquisition should not preclude us in any way from pursuing other potential acquisitions. Earnings per share which were $0.26 for the third quarter compared to $0.25 for the second quarter and $0.23 for the year ago quarter. Through the first nine months of 2015 we're in $70.5 million compared with $78.4 million for the first nine months of 2014. As you may recall during the first quarter of 2015 we repaid a $200 million fix rate advance from the Federal Home Loan bank, resulting a $13.9 million termination expense on a free tax basis. The third quarter represented our 154th consecutive quarter of profitability and a 104th consecutive quarter of paying a cash dividend to our shareholders. Our tax equivalent net interest margin was 3.72% for the third quarter compared with 3.65% for the second quarter of 2015 and 3.61% for the year ago quarter. Total loans grew by $38 million or 1% for the third quarter to $3.82 billion. Our new loan productivity for the first three quarter of 2015 was significantly stronger than the same period in 2014. However net loan growth has been slowed by higher loan prepayments. Loan prepayment penalties totaled over $4.3 million for 2015 year-to-date, compared to $2.1 million for 2014 year-to-date, over double. Notwithstanding the prepayment pressure, total loans still grew by $38 million or 1% for the third quarter to $3.82 billion. During the third quarter, dairy and livestock loan portfolio increased by $26.1 million, construction loans increased by $10.7 million, in-single family residential mortgage loan increased by $7.2 million. In terms of loan quality, non-performing assets defined non-accrual loans plus OREO were $30.6 million for the third quarter of 2015, an increase of $592,000 from the prior quarter. Non-performing commercial real estate loans increased $1.7 million during the third quarter offset by a decrease of $622,000 million in non-performing single family residential mortgage loans and $832,000 in OREO. The allowance for loan and lease losses was $59.1 million or 1.55% of total loans at September 30, 2015 compared with $59.6 million or 1.57% of total loans at June 30, 2015. The reduction in allowance was due to the release of $2.5 million in reserves driven by net loan loss recoveries of $2.1 million for the third quarter. At September 30, 2015 we had loans delinquent 30 to 89 days of only $318,000 or 0.01% of total loans. Classified loans for the third quarter totaled $85.6 million. This was a $32.7 million decrease from the prior quarter. These decrease was primarily due to upgrading $23 million of classified commercial real estate loans. We will have more detailed information on classified loans available in our third quarter Form 10-Q. Now I’d like to discuss deposits. For the third quarter 2015 our non-interest bearing deposits increased to $3.3 billion compared with $3.25 billion for the prior quarter and $3.04 billion for the same quarter a year ago. This represents a $267.9 million increase or 8.82% year-over-year, and a 1.67% increase quarter-over-quarter. Average non-interest bearing deposits were $3.23 billion for the third quarter 2015, compared with $3.12 billion for the prior quarter and $2.92 billion for the same quarter a year ago. Non-interest bearing deposits now represent 55.46% of our total deposits, this is an all-time high. Our total cost of deposits and customer repurchase agreements was 10 basis points for the third quarter unchanged from the prior quarter. At September 30, 2015 our total deposits and customer repurchase agreements were $6.57 billion compared with $6.29 billion for the same period a year ago, and $6.66 billion at June 30, 2015. Averaged total deposits and customer repurchase agreements were $6.59 billion for the third quarter of 2015 compared with $6.46 billion for the prior quarter and $6.21 billion for the year ago quarter. Our ongoing objective remains to maintain a low cost stable source of funding for our loans and securities. Interest income, interest income for the third quarter of 2015 totaled $67.7 million compared with $64.5 million for the second quarter of 2015. Non-interest income was $8.4 million for the third quarter of 2015, compared with $8.3 million for the second quarter of 2015. Now expenses, we continue to closely monitor and manage our expenses. Non-interest expense for the third quarter was $32.7 million compared with $31.5 million for the second quarter. The increase was principally due to the expenses related to the expansion of our offices and teams in the Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara County. Non-interest expense was 1.71% of average assets for the third quarter, compared with 1.69% of average assets for the second quarter. Now I’d like to turn the call over to Rich Thomas our CFO to discuss our effective tax rate, investment portfolio and overall capital position. Rich?