Earnings Labs

First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (FIBK)

Q1 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 24, 2014

$35.65

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to the First Interstate BancSystem’s First Quarter 2014 Earnings Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions). After today’s presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator Instructions). Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Marcy Mutch. Please go ahead, Ma’am.

Marcy Mutch

Management

Thanks Denise. Good morning. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter earnings conference call. As we begin, I’d like to direct all listeners to the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements and factors that could affect future results in our most recently filed Form 10-K. Relevant factors that would cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements are listed in the earnings release and in our SEC filings. The company does not intend to correct or update any of the forward-looking statements made today. Joining us from management this morning are Ed Garding, our Chief Executive Officer; and Kevin Riley, our Chief Financial Officer, along with other members of our management team. At this time, I will turn the call over to Ed Garding. Ed?

Ed Garding

Management

Thanks, Marcy. Good morning and thanks again to all of you for joining us on the call. It’s been a productive quarter for us. Yesterday, we reported earnings of $21.4 million or $0.48 per share. This equates to a respectable return on equity of 10.74% and a return on assets of 1.16%. Along with strong earnings this quarter, we are also excited about the pending merger with Mountain West Bank based in Helena, Montana. I assume you can feel the excitement in my voice. Let’s get back to our earnings. Once again, earnings were significantly impacted by a negative provision with the improvement we saw in credit quality dictating that we should release some of the money we have previously putted into the allowance for loan losses. I know I have stated publicly that I didn’t anticipate reversals at this level for 2014. However, as you saw in the release last evening, we had net recoveries of just over $1 million while gross recoveries of $4 million were spread over the quarter, a little over $2 million of the recoveries occurred in late March with one charged-off note refinanced by another bank. So, this combined with the continued improvement in our level of non-performing loans and general economic conditions, along with the modest amount of loan growth in the first quarter resulted in a $5 million reversal. Mortgage revenue declined $940,000 from last quarter. As anticipated, mortgage activity has returned to a more normal cycle in 2014. By this, I mean more purchase activity, slower production in the winter months picking up through the middle of the year and then tapering up towards the end of the year. This is exactly what we saw happened this quarter, but had the additional impact of a very cold, very snowy winter that…

Kevin Riley

Management

Thanks Ed and good morning everyone. I'd like to start off by reviewing the average balance sheet trends. Total earning assets were down slightly from last quarter, but the good news is that our loans outstanding were up approximately $20 million. However, our short term investments were down offsetting this increase. Our investment portfolio declined $25 million this quarter, but remained stable at 28% of total assets. We continue to focus on keeping our duration short, which declined to 3.4 years this quarter from 3.7 years at December 31. We recognize that we have a lot of cash on hand right now and understand the need to make more than 25 basis points. So depending how quickly we could deploy some of this in loan demand, we may need to invest some of these funds to get higher returns. We continue to be sensitive to the idea that rates could raise and we want to be ready if and when this may occur. Other assets increased approximately $60 million due to purchases of bank-owned life insurance at the end of 2013 and at the beginning of 2014. On the liability side, our deposit grew this quarter and we continue to see a shift at time deposits into savings and demand. We think our customers are doing the same thing we are which is sitting on the side line in short term investments while waiting for the opportunity to earn a better rate on their money. When rates start to move, we know we will need to pay a little more but for now, this shift has allowed our cost of funds to remain stable at 28 basis points. Our capital levels remain strong with our tangible capital ratio at 8.58%, total risk-based capital at almost 17%. We are excited about…

Ed Garding

Management

Thanks Kevin. Just a few comments about the economy across our footprint. In terms of economic drivers, we believe we’ll see a positive impact from all three legs of our economy, energy, agriculture and tourism. Oil prices remain stable. Powder River coal prices are up and business in our areas continues to be positively impacted by the Bakken. With cattle inventories across our country at the lowest level they have been since to 1950s, Ag customer should have another good year and cattle prices are predicted to be high once again. Our winter sports area, specifically ski resorts and snow mobiling areas had record years. And as we know, the summer will bring tourists into the national parks in our footprint. Construction activity is up, the housing market is healthy, indirect lending is also up. Our loan pipeline is stronger than we’ve seen over the last three to four years. So headed into our busy season, we feel like the economy has a little more momentum than we’ve had for the last few years. Hopefully, this will translate into loan growth. Lastly I want to wrap-up by providing an update on the Mountain West transaction. Not only do we anticipate the transaction will be immediately accretive to earnings based on the cost savings we’ve modeled, we believe it will allow us better opportunities for organic growth in Western Montana. Mountain West has a talented group of employees and we anticipate a smooth transition as the cultures of the two organizations are very similar. We are excited about the opportunity this presents for our company and there aren’t, pardon me, as there aren’t many opportunities for end market acquisition of this size. We anticipate getting regulatory and Mountain West shareholder approval in the next few weeks with the close dates around the middle of the year. With that, I will open it up to questions.

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). We have a question from Jeff Rulis from D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead sir.

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

Analyst

Thanks, good morning.

Ed Garding

Management

Good morning Jeff.

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

Analyst

Question on the mortgage division or the gain on sale, I guess to the degree that that was impacted by weather, down 18% production wise, any sort of comment on the actual impact, not necessarily a number thing, and just any outlook on that line item, I guess going forward.

Ed Garding

Management

The 18% drop is from fourth quarter last year to first quarter this year. The drop year-over-year is actually much more than that and you’ve probably seen some of the industry numbers were not unlike the rest of the country.

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

Analyst

Alright, I guess I was referencing the sequential from Q4 and just referencing really that weather comment, what impact do you think that had, to what degree was that decline?

Ed Garding

Management

We think that was a huge part of that 18% drop. It really was so cold and so much snow that the building of houses was delayed dramatically plus you are just not going to see people out shopping even for existing homes when you get kind of weather conditions. So we think it did have an impact. We are hearing stories about a lot of activity ramping up now that spring is here.

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

Analyst

Okay. And then just a question on the reserve levels, are you getting any comments or pressure on that from accountants or auditors on your reserve levels or this is still just your internal methodology? How are those discussions going?

Ed Garding

Management

I don’t think we are getting any push back, if that’s what you mean. We try to be consistent. And we think that that’s what the accounting industry wants is consistency in the way you measure the allowance that you ought to have. And because of that we are continuing to put money back into earnings out of the allowance versus building a war chest in the allowance.

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

Analyst

Got it, and then one quick last one on, any merger cost in the quarter on the expense side?

Ed Garding

Management

I am going to have Kevin answer that for us.

Kevin Riley

Management

No, not this time. We do expect some to start being there in the second quarter.

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Ed Garding

Management

Thanks, Jeff.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Brad Milsaps from Sandler O’Neill. Please go ahead, sir. Brad Milsaps - Sandler O’Neill: Hey, good morning.

Ed Garding

Management

Hello, Brad. Brad Milsaps - Sandler O’Neill: Ed, you sound a little more optimistic about the economy as well as the loan pipeline, I know one of the kind of big hurdles or stumbling blocks you talked about is not liking maybe a lot of the terms or structures kind of -- or pricing for that fact that’s out there. Any improvement there or is it really more, the economy is getting better, so that’s why you feel a little bit better about loan growth versus other things you are seeing in the market in terms of term, structure pricing that may have prevented you from being more aggressive before?

Ed Garding

Management

It’s more about feeling better about the economy. We are seeing a lot of positive signs, most which are relating to home building again and even some subdivision development, some related to commercial projects like retail and even some wholesale. And there is still a tremendous need for all of us bankers to find loans. And so the competitive pressure hasn’t changed in regards to -- there is always going to be someone out there with a lower rate or better loan terms. But I think that as the economy continues to ramp up, there will be more to go around. And we have a pretty good list of loyal relationship customers that are going to start expanding their businesses and we are going to help them. Brad Milsaps - Sandler O’Neill: Got it. Okay thank you very much.

Ed Garding

Management

You are welcome, Brad.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Jackie Chimera from KBW. Please go ahead, ma’am.

Jackie Chimera - KBW

Analyst

Hi, good morning everyone.

Ed Garding

Management

Hi, Jackie.

Jackie Chimera - KBW

Analyst

Just given your prepared remarks, is it possible that we could see the deal close at the end of 2Q now instead of 3Q?

Ed Garding

Management

Kevin go ahead.

Kevin Riley

Management

No Jackie. Right now, it looks like it’s going to be in early July probably.

Jackie Chimera - KBW

Analyst

Okay. And then you mentioned that you felt that some of the expenses could move up in future quarters. Were there any particular line items that you thought were late in the first quarter?

Kevin Riley

Management

I think ORE was a little bit late due to fact that we had gains and so that could come back up a little bit, I think that salary expense might come back up a little bit just because of seasonality and going back into maybe a little higher accrual and incentive. So those might come back. So, I think the guidance that we gave kind of at the end of last year of total non-interest expense around $50 million to $55 million and to $55.5 million is still kind of range we believe that we’ll be operating in.

Jackie Chimera - KBW

Analyst

Okay. So, was salary expenses late given the weather as well?

Kevin Riley

Management

Yes. And I think that just later accrual for incentive so a little bit later than normal.

Jackie Chimera - KBW

Analyst

Okay. And then lastly, the share repurchases, I personally was just a little bit surprised to see some of that ahead of the deal, is that something that as you continue to manage capital levels you might continue up until the deal closes and then possibly accelerate after that point?

Kevin Riley

Management

Yes. We’re going to pick our times again. We want to make sure we purchase stock at a good price so that we don’t do tangible book and our stock price did give us an opportunity at one point to buy some shares back at a price level that we like. So, we’re going to pick and choose but as you know the deal gives you a lot of blackout period because of certain things and we’re going to have probably some more of those in the second quarter. So, we’ll pick and choose when we believe is the right time to utilize that but -- so that could be some in the second quarter and could be some in the third just based upon where we see the opportunities to deploy that capital.

Jackie Chimera - KBW

Analyst

Okay. And then potentially picking up momentum in 4Q and into 2015 after the future deal announcement?

Kevin Riley

Management

We could.

Jackie Chimera - KBW

Analyst

Okay. Great, thank you.

Kevin Riley

Management

Thanks Jackie.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Our next question is from Matthew Keating from Barclays. Please go ahead sir.

Matthew Keating - Barclays

Analyst

Yes. Thank you, good morning.

Ed Garding

Management

Good morning Matt.

Matthew Keating - Barclays

Analyst

I guess my first question would be following the Mountain West announcement, have you seen any pick up in coming call volumes from banks either within your footprint or near your footprint in terms of those banks that might be interested in partnering with you longer term as well? Thanks.

Ed Garding

Management

I’m trying to think of the conversations that I’ve had Matt and I honestly think that I would have had them with or without that announcement. We have talked to some banks and continually do and often times it’s not the right fit or the right price tag, but I can’t say that I’ve had any calls due to that Mountain West announcement.

Matthew Keating - Barclays

Analyst

Okay. That’s helpful. And then I appreciate the commentary on the weather. I’m suddenly feeling a lot better about the weather, the winter we just got through in the northeast given the 100 inch of snow, you guys have endured. I guess, you know a few other banks that I do follow though have talked about higher snow removal cost, is that something you guys just don’t bother within your footprint as the snow will be there for the winter? So, was there any impact on expenses on that front?

Ed Garding

Management

Most of our customers own snow mobiles and we have snow mobile lanes in the drive-in. And I’m just kidding Matt. But no, we pay people to plough the parking lots and the driving lanes and so on, but it’s a budgeted item that happens year-in and year-out and it wouldn't anything that we would call an extraordinary expense or even a material expense.

Matthew Keating - Barclays

Analyst

Got you. All right. Well, thanks again.

Ed Garding

Management

Yes, thank you Matt.

Operator

Operator

Showing no further questions at this time, this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Ed Garding

Management

I don’t have any closing remarks other than thank you and good bye.