Will Furr
Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open. Please go ahead
Thank you, Jeremy. I'll start on Page 5. As Jeremy discussed for the second quarter of 2022, Hilltop reported consolidated income attributable to common stockholders $33 million [equating to] [ph] $0.45 per diluted share. Turning to Page 6. During the second quarter, we continue to experience improvements across the loan portfolio as NPLs declined and charge-offs remain low. The improvements in the portfolio positively impacted the allowance for credit losses by $10.5 million, but were more than offset by deterioration in the U.S. economic outlook since the last quarter as provided in the Moody's June S7 scenario. Cumulative changes to the economic outlook resulted in a build in the ACL of $17 million in the quarter. As of June 30, the allowance for credit losses was $95 million, yielding an ACL to total loans HFI coverage ratio of 1.2%. Additionally, excluding mortgage warehouse, broker dealer, and PPP loans, the ACL to total bank loan HFI ratio equates to 1.33%. Of note, we continue to believe that allowance for credit losses could be volatile and that changes in the allowance will be driven by net loan growth in the portfolio, credit migration trends, and changes to the macroeconomic outlook over time. Further, certain industry provided economic forecasts are beginning to reflect an increased likelihood of economic recession in future periods, some starting as early as fourth quarter of 2022. We will continue to monitor the current environment, as well as a broad set of economic forecasts during the third quarter to determine what impacts in the updated outlook may have on the allowance for credit losses in future periods. Turning to Page 7. Net interest income in the second quarter equated to $112 million, including $1.3 million of PPP fees and interest, $3 million of purchase accounting accretion. Net interest margin expanded by 39 basis points versus the first quarter of 2022 to 275 basis points, driven primarily by declines in excess cash levels and higher yields on both loans held for investment and loans held for sale. We continue to rigorously manage interest bearing deposit costs in the face of increasing competition and customer expectations for higher rates. During the second quarter, new commercial loan originations, including credit renewals and an average book yield of 4.48%, which moved higher by 55 basis points versus the first quarter levels. In addition, we retained $104 million of residential mortgages during the quarter yielding an average interest rate of 4.35%. Moving to Page 8. In the chart in the upper left, we highlight the asset sensitivity of Hilltop, assuming parallel and instantaneous rate shocks, which represents an asset sensitive position of approximately 8% in the up 100 basis point scenario. As we evaluate asset sensitivity and interest rate risk, we assess a number of potential scenarios. Of note, if we shift the analysis from an instantaneous parallel shift, the gradual increase over the course of next 12 months, the up 100 basis point asset sensitivity falls to 4%. Impacting future asset sensitivity will be our loans currently at or below their floor levels. As of June 30, Hilltop had approximately $960 million of loans that remained at their contractual floor levels. Of these loans 366 million will reset above their floor levels over the next 12 months. In the graph on the bottom right of the page, we highlight our deposit pricing approach to the last meaningful rising rate cycle. Throughout that cycle, we maintained an approximate 50% yield beta on interest bearing deposits. As such, our current modeling and outlook continues to reflect that Hilltop’s through the cycle deposit beta will be approximately 50% once this cycle concludes. Lastly, for 2022, we expect that the impact of PPP related fees and interest, which were approximately $22 million in 2021, and purchase loan accretion, which was approximately $19 million, a decline by combined $25 million to $30 million versus the 2021 levels. I'm moving to Page 9. Total non-interest income for the second quarter of 2022 equated to $139.9 million. Second quarter mortgage related income and fees decreased by $102 million versus the second quarter of 2021, driven by the ever evolving environment in the mortgage banking, which has moved quickly to being purchased focused. Versus the prior year quarter, purchased mortgage volume decreased by 677 million or 17% and refinanced volumes declined much more substantially increasing by $1.4 billion or 75%. During the second quarter, reported gain on sale margins declined sharply to 253 basis points, down 111 basis points versus the same period in the prior year. Margins were negatively impacted by pricing reductions across the markets, as well as customer preference to pay more in origination fees, the rate buydowns versus paying the prevailing interest rate in the market. We expect full-year average margins to remain under substantial pressure during 2022 as mortgage volumes normalized from historically high levels seen over the last two years and the competition for that lower volume drops higher margin. Currently, we expect that full year average gain on sale margins for loans sold to third parties will average between 250 basis points and 290 basis points contingent on market conditions. The change in other income principally reflects the impact of improved results in structured finance, which benefited from lower market volatility during the second quarter. It remains important to recognize that both fixed income services and structured finance businesses can be volatile from period-to-period as they are impacted by interest rates, overall market liquidity, volatility and production trends. Turning to Page 10. Non-interest expenses decreased from the same period in the prior year by $45 million to $299 million. The decline in expenses versus the prior year was driven by decreases in variable compensation of approximately $38 million, partly driven by PrimeLending, which was linked to substantially lower fee revenue generation in the quarter, compared to the prior year period. Additionally, non-compensation variable expenses, particularly mortgage production related expenses declined as volumes declined versus the prior year. Including our second quarter expenses, as Jeremy mentioned earlier, HTH incurred $4.4 million of transaction related expenses related to the closing of the tender transaction. We do not expect any further costs related to this transaction in subsequent quarters. Looking forward into the last half of 2022, we expect that inflation will continue to impact compensation, occupancy, and software expenses resulting in elevated fixed costs within the businesses, compared to prior periods. To help mitigate some of these headwinds, we remain focused on continuous improvement leveraging the investments we've made over the last few years to aggressively manage increased productivity across our front, middle, and back offices. While these inflationary pressures do exist, we are continuing to further streamline our businesses and accelerate the adoption of our digital capabilities to support client acquisition and overall business productivity. Turning to Page 11. Average HFI loans equated to 7.8 billion in the second quarter, increasing by approximately $285 million from the prior year levels. During the second quarter, commercial lending, in particular, commercial real estate was solid as [both] [ph] closed production and our forward pipelines remain robust. Our commercial loan growth rates have improved over the last few quarters that we expect that the full-year commercial loan growth during 2022 will be in the 2% to 5% range as competition remains very intense for newly funded loans. Further, given our current liquidity position, we expect to continue to retain one to four mortgages originated at PrimeLending at a pace of between $25 million and $75 million per month throughout 2022. Mortgage marketplace has shifted towards adjustable rate products, which we prefer holding versus longer duration fixed rate mortgages that made up the preponderance of loans retained in prior periods. Turning to Page 12, overall credit quality remained solid. In the graph, in the upper right, we show the ongoing progress made in reducing NPAs as overall credit quality continues to improve across the portfolio. As is shown in the graph on the bottom right of the page, the allowance for credit loss coverage at the bank into the second quarter of 2022 at 1.27%, including both the mortgage warehouse lending, as well as PPP loans. Moving to Page 13. Second quarter average total deposits were approximately $12.3 billion and it decreased by approximately $288 million or 3% versus the first quarter of 2022. Given the pace of change of interest rates, interest bearing deposit yields have begun to move higher increasing by 7 basis points versus the first quarter of 2022. Given the expectation of additional rate changes from the Federal Reserve, we do expect to see deposit costs continue to rise in 2022. While deposit levels remain elevated, it should be noted that we remain focused on growing our client base and deepening wallet share through our treasury products and services. These efforts have been successful and we expect they will continue to accelerate into the second half of 2022. Moving to Page 14. Given the challenges during the first half of 2022, we are updating our 2022 outlook to reflect current market conditions, expectations for future performance, and actions will be taken to support profitable growth over the coming quarters. It should be noted that we expect ongoing volatility in the capital markets and the overall economy and this volatility could materially impact our results and change our expectations in the future. As such, we will provide updated outlook where appropriate during our quarterly calls. Operator, that concludes our prepared comments and we'll turn the call back to you for the Q&A section of the call.