Randy Chesler
Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is open
All right. Thank you, Rusty. 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; Barry Johnston, our Chief Credit Officer, Tom Dolan, our Deputy Chief Credit Administrator; and Byron Pollan, our Treasurer. Let me first thank you all for joining us today, and hope you’re all enjoying the fall. Yesterday, we released our third quarter 2019 results. This was a very strong quarter for us with strong net interest margin, excellent deposit growth, steady and improving credit performance and good quality loan growth. As we noted in the last quarter’s call, we feel we are very well-positioned to navigate through the current interest rate environment. And despite the headwinds in the market for banks, challenging interest rate curve, later innings of a long-term recovery, the Glacier team is strong, and we are continuing to build the balance sheet and the company for the long haul. Some highlights from the quarter. Earnings were $51.6 million, an increase of $2 million or 5% over the prior year third quarter, including current period acquisition-related expenses of $2.1 million and $5.4 million of stock compensation expense related to the accelerated vesting of options from the Heritage Bancorp acquisition. Without the acquisition expenses, net income would have been $56.2 million, an increase from the prior year third quarter of $6.9 million or 14%. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.57, a decrease of 2% over the prior year third quarter, but this included the acquisition-related expenses. Organic loan balances increased $84 million or 4% annualized. On a full year basis, loan balances grew $393 million or 6%. We also had organic core deposit growth of $302 million or 12% annualized. And organic non-interest deposit growth was a very strong $211 million or 26% annualized. This quarter’s deposit growth exceeded our expectations. Net interest margin for the quarter of 4.42% of earning assets increased 9 basis points over the prior quarter. Excluding the 2 basis points from discount accretion and 5 basis points from non-accrual interest, the core net interest margin grew 8 basis points in the quarter to 4.35% from 4.27% million the prior quarter and up 17 basis points from four 4.18% in the prior year third quarter. We are very pleased to be one of the few banks in this earnings season to be able to talk about an expanding margin. Return on assets was 1.55% for the quarter, a 14 basis-point decrease over the prior quarter, as a result of the acquisition-related expenses that occurred during the quarter. Without those expenses, ROA would have been 1.69% for the quarter. Tangible book value per share at $15.53 at quarter end, increased $0.50 a share from the prior quarter and increased $1.90 per share from a year ago. We also declared a regular dividend of $0.29 per share, our 138th consecutive quarterly dividend, which was a 7% increase over the prior quarter. At the end of July, we successfully closed on the acquisition of Heritage Bancorp in Reno, Nevada. Heritage became more 16th division and our first entrance into Nevada. And we’re very excited to welcome the Heritage Bank team to the Glacier team. And then, in late September, we also announced the acquisition of State Bank Corp. in Lake Havasu, Arizona with total assets of $677 million. State Bank will be combined with our Foothills Bank division and continue its 20 years legacy of serving Arizona communities. The acquisition, of course, is subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions of closing, and we’re expecting to close that late this year or early next year. Now, for a little more color on the quarterly results. Loan production for the first quarter was once again generally well-distributed among all divisions. Loan paydowns were slightly elevated compared with past third quarters. The loan portfolio ended the quarter at $9.5 billion. As a result of the slower third quarter and typically slower fourth quarter, we’re anticipating a 6% organic loan growth rate for the year. While we continue to feel very good about our western markets, we’ve seen an increase in payoffs with customers taking advantage of the strong markets. Liquidity generated from these sales has not been immediately reinvested by sellers at the rate we’ve seen in the past, due to those sellers being a bit more cautious about making new investments. In addition, we’ve seen a small increase in money center banks making larger loans to some of our customers at rates we don’t think adequately pay for risk at this point in the cycle. So, we’re happy with our rate of growth, and we’re going to be continue to be disciplined in our approach to lending with our eye on the longer term. Total investment securities of $2.6 billion, decreased $28 million or 1% during the quarter, and are flat compared to the prior year third quarter. Investment securities represented 20% of total assets at the end of the quarter, compared to 23% at the end of the third quarter a year ago. Once again, our key credit quality ratios improved in almost all categories across the board, reflecting the strength of our loan portfolio. Early stage delinquencies as a percentage of loans at the end of the third quarter were 31 basis points, a decrease of 12 basis points from the prior quarter and flat to the prior third quarter in a year ago. Net charge-offs for the quarter were $3.5 million, compared to $2.2 million in the third quarter a year ago. This increase in net charge-offs was primarily centered in one loan with a $1.9 million loss resulting from a negotiated short-sale. Nonperforming assets as a percentage of subsidiary assets at the end of the quarter were 40 basis points, which is 1 basis point lower than the prior quarter and 21 basis points lower than the prior year third quarter. At the end of the quarter, the dollar amount of NPAs were $55.1 million, an increase of $3.1 million, or 6% from the prior quarter, but the increase was primarily driven by a $2.7 million loan that we expect to resolve early next year. A number of our divisions and division Chief Credit Officers continue to do an excellent working through these credits. We think now is the time to be more proactive with the weaker credits, and we will continue to do so. The allowance for loan and lease losses as a percentage of total loans outstanding at the end of this quarter was 1.32%, which is down 14 basis points from the prior quarter and down 31 from the third quarter a year ago. Provision for loan losses was zero in the current and prior quarters. This reflects our continued very positive outlook on our portfolio and our markets. We don’t see these one-off loan issues as a trend. Core deposits ended the quarter at $10.7 billion. Total core deposits were organically up 12% annualized or $302 million, and increased $287 million or 3% from the quarter a year ago. Noninterest-bearing deposits were organically up $211 million or 26% annualized and increased $280 million or 9% over the prior year’s third quarter. We’ve been focused on growing our share of noninterest deposits for some time now and are really pleased to see the growth trend. Noninterest deposits are now 35% of deposits, up from 32% a year ago. The cost of our core deposits was up slightly from 19 basis points to 21 in the current quarter and up 5 from the prior year’s third quarter. We ended the quarter with a loan to deposit ratio of 88.71, down from 90.27 at the end of the prior quarter, resulting from the acquisition and really strong deposit growth. The total cost of funding for the current quarter was down -- was 39 basis points. This was down from 45 at the end of the prior quarter and 36 basis points at the end of the prior year third quarter. The decrease was driven by an increase in low cost deposits that was utilized to pay down high cost borrowings. Net income for the quarter was $131 million, which was up $11.1 million or 9% from the prior quarter and increased $17.7 million or 16% over the prior year third quarter. Interest income on commercial loans increased $9.2 million or 10% from the prior quarter and increased $16.6 million or 21% from the prior year third quarter. As I noted last quarter, there’s been a lot of talk about margin. And now fast forward to this earnings season and the conversation about margin is still continuing. Going forward in 2019, we continue to believe, we’ll see a generally stable core margin, operating in a tight band around current levels. Now, the impact on the margin in ‘20 will depend on the steepness of the interest rate curve at that time. But overall, we feel very well positioned to navigate through this environment. In early September, the Company implemented balance sheet strategy to increase its net interest income and net interest margin. The strategy included early termination of the Company’s $260 million notional pay-fixed interest rate swaps and corresponding debt at 3.73%, along with the sale of $308 million of available for sale debt securities. Sale of the investment securities during the quarter resulted in a gain of $13.8 million. Offsetting the gain was a $10 million loss recognized on the early termination of the swaps and a $3.5 million write-down of deferred penalty payments on Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings. So, the net here is we believe this strategy will mitigate the 5 to 7 basis points of margin headwinds that we talked about for the rest of 2019 on our last quarter’s call, and continue to provide a bit of support under our margin going forward. Noninterest income for the quarter totaled $43 million that was up 40% or $12 million from the prior quarter, and increase $10.6 million or 33% over the same quarter last year. This increase is primarily attributable to the sale of securities and related to the balance sheet strategy. Service charges and other fees of $15.1 million decreased $4.9 million or 24% from the prior quarter, and this was due to the decrease in interchange fees as a result of the Durbin Amendment. Notably, gain on sale of loans of $10.4 million increased $2.6 million or 34% over the prior quarter and $3.1 million or 43% over the prior year third quarter. This was due to increased purchase and refinance activity at very, very strong levels. The Company sold $308 million of securities and recognized a 13.8 -- a gain of $13.8 million, an increase of $13.7 million from the prior quarter. Other income was down $2.3 million from the prior year’s third quarter, and this was a result of a gain of $2.3 million on the sale of a former branch building in the in the prior year third quarter. Noninterest expense for the quarter was $111 million and this increased $24.5 million or 28% from the prior quarter, and $27.8 million or 34% over the prior year third quarter. Compensation and employee benefits increased $10.5 million or 20%, and this was primarily due to the $5.4 million stock comp expense related to the acquisition and organic and acquisition growth which required more employees. Regulatory assessment and insurance decreased $1.3 million or 68% from the prior quarter as a result of the $1.3 million of Small Bank Assessment credits applied by the FDIC during the quarter. Other expenses of $29.1 million increased $13.8 million or 91% from the prior quarter. This was driven by the $3.5 million loss in the paydown of Federal Home Loan Bank debt and a $10 million loss on the termination of the cash flow hedges. Acquisition-related expenses were $2.1 million during the quarter, compared to $1.8 million in the prior quarter and $1.3 million a year ago. Tax expense was $12.2 million, a decrease of $356,000 or 3%, compared to an increase of $1.4 million or 13% from the prior year third quarter. Effective tax rate is 19%, compared to 18% in the prior year third quarter. Efficiency ratio impacted by the current quarter unusual events that we talked about, primarily related to the balance sheet strategy and the acquisition. Excluding those things, the efficiency ratio would have been closer to 54.4%, which keeps us in a range of the 54%, 55% that we’ve been talking about. So, a lot going on, but we think this third quarter really represents an excellent performance by the Company. In addition to delivering strong operating performance for the quarter, the Company completed the acquisition of Heritage Bank and announced the acquisition of State Bank of Arizona. So, our 16-division presidents and their teams across our eight states now with Nevada, as well as our senior staff continue to produce market-leading results. And I would like to thank them all for their commitment and their drive to be the best. So, Rusty, that concludes my formal remarks, and I’d now like to turn the call back over to you to open the line for any questions that our analysts may have.