Randy Sims
Analyst · Raymond James. Please go ahead
Thank you, Johnny. Another year is over, and as you have stated, what a year it was for Home Bancshares. And it was a busy year. In the first quarter, we acquired the Doral Florida Panhandle operations in the FDIC failed bank transaction that added to our already strong presence in Panama City, as well as giving us a good increase in market share in Pensacola. We acquired $289 million of national commercial real estate loans and a related Doral transaction, and we started up the Centennial Commercial Finance Group in New York. And on October 1st, we closed the acquisition of Florida Business BancGroup, the parent company of Bay Cities Bank in Tampa, Florida. The acquisition included six branch locations in the Tampa area and a loan production office in Sarasota, Florida. As of closing and including the effects of purchase accounting, FBBI had approximately $565 million in total assets, $408 million in loans, and $472 million in deposits; so a very busy year. So let’s get to some of the numbers and I’ll start with net income, of course, the most important item. Net income for December 31, 2015 was $138.2 million, compared to $113.1 million for the year ended 2014; that’s a 22.2% increase. Diluted earnings per share for the year ended 2015 was $2.02 per share, compared to $1.70 per share for 2014. Excluding the $4.8 million of 2015 merger expenses associated with the 2015 acquisitions, diluted earnings per share for the year ended 2015 was $2.06 per share, compared to $1.76 for 2014, which also excluded merger expenses. There was a 25.1% increase in the fourth quarter earnings to $37.4 million, compared to $29.9 million for the same quarter in 2014. Again, excluding the $2.9 million of merger expenses associated with Bay Cities and Tampa, our diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $0.56 per share. We were very pleased with that number and we’re very pleased with the net income in the fourth quarter. And as I love to say that is now 19 consecutive quarters of record income for Home Bancshares. Our $37.4 million this quarter can be compared to our previously reported profit of $35.7 million last quarter, again a good increase. Components that helped us get to this record income were strong organic loan growth of $232 million, a continued strong margin as well as great efficiency ratio, which we will discuss in more detail. When you make progress in your key components, the results should be greater net income. And that is exactly what continues to happen for us not only in the last quarter, but throughout this year. So, I’d like to turn it over to Centennial’s CEO, Tracy French, to give us additional color on our performance this quarter and for the year.