Randall Chesler
Analyst · SunTrust
All right. Thank you, Joelle, good morning, and thank you for joining us today. With me here in Kalispell this morning is Ron Copher, our Chief Financial Officer; Don Chery, our Chief Administrative Officer; Angela Dose, our Chief Accounting Officer; Tom Dolan, our Deputy Chief Credit Administrator; and joining us by phone is Barry Johnston, our Chief Credit Administrator. So let me first thank you all for joining us today and hope you're all enjoying the summer. Yesterday, we released our second quarter 2019 results. This was a very strong quarter for us with well-balanced performance across the business. Some highlights and details from the quarter. Earnings were $52.4 million, which was an $8 million or 18% increase over the prior year second quarter. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.61, an increase of 17% over the prior year second quarter. Organic loan balances increased $270 million or 13% annualized. We also had organic core deposit growth of $40.1 million or 2% annualized. Organic non-interest deposit growth was a very strong $120 million or 16% annualized. Net interest margin for the quarter was 4.33% of earning assets, which was stable, down just 1 basis point over the prior quarter. Our loan yields increased 2 basis points from the prior quarter to 5.20%, and our cost of core deposits was unchanged. The net interest margin was up 16 basis points over the second quarter a year ago. Return on assets was a very strong 1.69% for the quarter, a 2 basis points increase over the prior quarter. Tangible book value per share of $15.03 at quarter end increased $0.68 per share from the prior quarter, and $1.64 per share from a year ago. We also declared a regular dividend of $0.27 per share, our 137th consecutive quarterly dividend, which was a 4% increase over the prior quarter. And at the end of April, we successfully closed on the acquisition of First National Bank in Layton, Utah, now named First Community Bank of Utah. This is over 15th division and our first standalone division in Utah. We now have a leading market position in Davis County and a strong team to help us grow, and we're very excited to welcome First Community Bank to the Glacier team. We also received all regulatory approvals on our acquisition of Heritage Bank in Reno, Nevada. This is a great community bank. One of the best performers in the industry with a great team, and a stable low-cost deposit base with excellent high-quality, high-margin loans. We expect to close this transaction at the end of July. Loan production for the first quarter was $990 million, which was, once again, generally well distributed among all our divisions. Loan paydowns were $719 million, which is consistent with past seasonality. And the loan portfolio ended the quarter at $8.8 billion. We still feel good about our 8% loan growth target for the year as our Western markets remain healthy and active and our unique business model remains extremely effective. Total investment securities of $2.7 billion decreased $55 million or 2% during the current quarter and decreased $75 million or 3% from the prior year second quarter. Investment securities represent 21% of total assets at the end of the quarter compared to 24% at the end of the second quarter a year ago. Once again, our key credit quality ratios improved in almost all categories across the board. Our talented team of credit professionals continue to do a great job in this area. Early-stage delinquencies, as a percentage of loans at the end of the second quarter were 43 basis points, a decrease of 7 basis points from the prior year second quarter. Net charge-offs for the quarter were $732,000 compared to $762,000 in the second quarter a year ago. Nonperforming assets, as a percentage of subsidiary assets at the end of second quarter were 41 basis points, which is 1 basis points lower than the prior quarter and 30 basis points lower than the prior year second quarter. At the end of the quarter, the dollar amount of NPAs were $51.9 million, an increase of $1.1 million or 2% from the prior quarter, but the increase was primarily driven by the acquisition that was added in the quarter. Number of our divisions and divisions' Presidents did an excellent job working through these different credit, and we expect NPAs to remain stable around this level as we move forward. Of course, there is always the potential for a one-off surprise addition, but we remain confident at being able to maintain the low current level. The allowance for loan and lease losses as a percentage of total loans outstanding at the end of the quarter was 1.46%, which is down 10 basis points from the prior quarter and down 20 basis points from the second quarter a year ago. Provision for loan losses was 0 versus $57,000 in the prior quarter. This reflects our continued, very positive outlook on that portfolio and our markets. Core deposits ended the quarter at $9.7 billion. Total core deposits were organically up 2% annualized or $40 million, and increased $184 million or 2% from the quarter a year ago. Noninterest-bearing deposits organically were up $120 million or 16% annualized and increased $257 million or 9% over the prior year second quarter. We've been focusing on growing our share of non-interest deposits from some time now and are pleased to see the growth trend. The cost of our core deposits was stable at 19 basis points, unchanged compared to the prior quarter, and up 3 basis points from the prior year second quarter. We ended the quarter with a loan-to-deposit ratio of 90.27%, up from 87.14% at the end of prior quarter. The total cost of funding for the current quarter was 45 basis points, up from 43 in the prior quarter and 36 at the end of the prior year second quarter. The increase in the current quarter was driven by the increased cost of borrowed funds needed to fund our strong loan growth for the quarter. And our 15 divisions continue to do an outstanding job managing the deposit cost specific to each of their markets. Interest income for the quarter was $120 million, which was up $5.1 million or 4% from the prior quarter and increased $11.7 million or 11% over the prior year second quarter. Both increases were primarily attributable to interest rate increases on renewing and new loans and an increase in commercial loans. Interest income on commercial loans increased $4.5 million or 5% from the prior quarter, and increased $12.2 million or 16% from the prior quarter -- from the prior year second quarter. Our net interest margin as a percentage of earning assets for the current quarter was a stable 4.33% compared to 4.34% in the prior quarter. The core margin, excluding discount accretion and recovery of interest on nonaccrual loans, increased 1 basis points to 4.27% from 4.26% last quarter. The yield on loans increased 2 basis points from the prior quarter, and the margin was up 16 basis points from the second quarter a year ago. We had very strong growth in the second quarter and needed to borrow from the Federal Home Loan Bank to support this growth, given loan growth was much stronger than deposit growth. As a result, the 2 basis point increase in loan yields was offset by the 2 basis point increase in wholesale funding cost. We'll see how much the wholesale funding cost will have impact we'll have going forward as the second and third quarters are historically good for deposit growth. Now there's been a lot of talk around margin this earnings season, the drop of almost 50 basis points in the 5-year treasury rate from the end of the first quarter to the end of the second quarter has changed the industry's view on margin and ours as well. We expect, along with the market, that the Fed will reduce interest rates 50 to 75 basis points in 2019. And our modeling shows that this would have a modest impact on our business and margin in 2019. Going forward in 2019, we believe we'll continue to see a generally stable core margin operating in a tight band around the current levels with the slight downward biases of up to 5 to 7 basis points. The impact on the margin in '20 will depend on the steepness in interest rate curve at that time. Overall, we feel the company is very well positioned to navigate through this current environment. In times like this, when NIMs are under pressure across industry, we think our consistent, strong and high-quality loan growth along with our stable and low-cost core funding foundation will continue to support us very well with increasing net income, even if our NIM is slightly reduced. Non-interest income for the quarter totaled $30.8 million, up 8% or $2.4 million from the prior quarter, and decreased $994,000 or 3% over the same quarter last year. We had some onetime items last year which caused a decrease compared to the prior year. Service charges and other fees of $20 million increased $2 million or 11% from the prior quarter, primarily due to seasonality. Gain on sale of loans of $7.8 million increased $2 million or 4% due to seasonality, as the second quarter generally marks the beginning of the peak real estate activity in our markets. Non-interest expense for the quarter of $86.2 million increased $3.3 million or 4% from the prior quarter, and increased $4.4 million or 5% from the prior year second quarter. Comp and employee benefits were up $2.9 million or 6% from the prior year, primarily due to acquisition and organic growth, which require more employees. Other expenses of $15.3 million increased $3 million or 25% from the prior quarter, primarily due to acquisition-related expenses. Acquisition-related expenses were $1.8 million during the current quarter compared to $214,000 in the prior quarter and $2.9 million in the prior quarter -- in the prior year second quarter. Tax expense for the quarter was $12.6 million, an increase of $900,000 or 8% compared to the prior quarter and $3.1 million or 33% from the prior year second quarter. Our effective tax rate in the second quarter was 19% compared to 18% in the prior year second quarter. The current quarter efficiency ratio was 54.5%, an 87 basis point improvement over the prior quarter efficiency ratio and a 94 basis point improvement over the prior quarter a year ago. We believe we're on track to meet our full year efficiency ratio target of between 54% and 55%. So the second quarter represents another excellent performance by the company. In addition, delivering -- to delivering a solid performance for the second quarter, the company announced the acquisition of Heritage Bank of Reno, Nevada. And as I previously noted, Heritage Bank and First National Bank of Layton, which closed at the end of April, will add over $1.1 billion in assets in 2019. We have received all regulatory approvals to proceed with the closing of the Heritage Bank of Reno, which will occur as planned at the end of this month. Our 15 Division Presidents and their teams across our 7 states as well as our senior staff continue to produce market-leading results, and I would like to thank them all for their commitment and drive to be the best. So Joelle, that ends my formal remarks, and I'd like to now ask you to open the line for any questions that our analysts may have.