Brad Kessel
Analyst · Sandler O'Neill & Partners. Please go ahead
Good morning. Thank you for joining Independent Bank Corporation's conference call and webcast to discuss the Company's 2016 third quarter results. I am Brad Kessel, President and Chief Executive Officer; and joining me is Rob Shuster, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin today's call, it is my responsibility to direct you to the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements. This is slide 2 in our presentation. If anyone does not already have a copy of the press release issued by Independent today, you can access it at the Company's website, www.independentbank.com. The agenda for today's call will include prepared remarks followed by a question-and-answer session and then closing remarks. We are pleased to report solid overall results for the third quarter of 2016. Net loan growth and mortgage loan originations and sales contributed to a 26.3% year-over-year increase in our quarterly net income. Quarterly earnings per share grew by 36.4% year-over-year reflecting both the increase in net income and the benefit of our share repurchase activity. Further, despite continued pressure from low interest rates, we did achieve growth in net interest income on both a year-over-year and sequential quarterly comparative basis. Turning to page 5. This quarter we are reporting net income of $6.4 million or $0.30 per diluted share versus net income of $5 million or $0.22 per diluted share in the prior-year period. For the nine months ended September 30, 2016 the Company is reporting net income of $16.9 million or $0.78 per diluted share compared to net income of $14.4 million or $0.62 per diluted share in the prior-year period. The third quarter's results were driven by net interest income of $20 million, up $1.2 million or 6.1% from the year-ago quarter and up $400,000 or 1.9% from the second quarter of 2016; and $11.7 million in non-interest income fueled by gains on mortgage loans of $3.6 million compared to $1.8 million in the year-ago quarter. The fundamentals of our balance sheet including capital, liquidity, and asset quality; all continue to be strong while we continue to grow loans and optimize our earning asset mix. During the third quarter, our loan portfolio grew $25.2 million or 6.3% annualized. Our loan to deposit ratio at 73% holds further opportunity for growth in net interest income. Today, Independent Bank is the fourth largest bank headquartered in Michigan and operates 63 branch locations in 21 counties and 11 MSAs as seen on page 6 of our presentation. Through the nine months of 2016, Michigan market conditions continued to be good as measured by labor, housing, and commercial real estate. The state unemployment rate is at 4.6% versus the national rate of 5%. Michigan payroll jobs totaled 4.329 million in September, 92,000 higher than one year ago. In September of 2015, Michigan's job gains have occurred in almost every major industry. The largest year-over-year increases have been in professional and business services, plus 23,400; education and health, plus 19,000; leisure and hospitality, plus 8,800; and manufacturing, plus 7,700 jobs. Michigan housing conditions also continue to exhibit positive trends as measured by total housing sales, housing starts, and the median sales price of single-family homes. The Detroit housing prices were up 5.34% year-over-year according to the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Occupancy rates for multi-family, office, light industrial, and retail continue to trend positively in each of our markets. The favorable economic conditions are seen in our loan origination and deposit gathering results. Page 7 contains a good summary of our loans and deposits by region. While our West Michigan market has led both our loan and deposit growth, we have seen year-over-year loan and deposit growth in each of our four markets. Total deposits as seen on page 8 were $2.21 billion at September 30, 2016, an increase of $146 million or 7.1% since September 30, 2015. The increase in deposits in addition to being spread across our markets has also been in both retail and commercial public fund portfolios. The Company's deposit base is substantially all core funding with $1.74 billion or 79% in transaction accounts. Consistent with industry trends, we continue to see increases in usage of our digital platforms and call center while at the same time seeing declines in branch transactional traffic. Accordingly, we continue to expand our digital product offering and call center hours. We also continue to emphasize with all our associates the importance of growing our deposit base and related fee income services. I have mentioned on previous calls our efforts and results to improve the overall efficiency and productivity of our branch network. These efforts have included reducing our branch delivery channel from 106 locations to the present 63 through a combination of sales, consolidations, and closures. In doing so, we have improved the overall profitability of our branches and increased the average deposits per branch from $20.2 million at the end of 2011 to the current average of $33 million per branch. As seen on page 9, loans including loans held for sale increased to $1.65 billion at September 30, 2016. This represents the 10th consecutive quarter of net loan growth for our Company. Total portfolio loans grew by $25.2 million or 6.3% annualized. Adjusting loan growth to remove impacts of a 06/30/2016 commercial customer overdraft of $6.7 million and a third quarter 2016 bulk mortgage loan purchase of $14.9 million results in net loan growth of $17 million or 4.3% annualized. Our mortgage team originated $123.1 million and sold $89.3 million during the third quarter. This compares very favorably to the second quarter's $92 million in originations and $70.5 million in sales. Independent Bank generally sells all its 15-year and 30-year fixed-rate mortgage originations. The bulk loan purchase during the third quarter was of conforming 15-year and 30-year fixed rate first mortgages generally conforming seasoned paper with Michigan collateral, a little different from our bulk purchase in the fourth quarter of ‘15 where that paper was jumbo product. We will continue to consider this strategy going forward as we look to improve our net interest income through investing in higher yielding loans as compared to lower yielding securities. That said, I am hopeful we will grow our mortgage category organically in future quarters. Our consumer installment category grew by $12.5 million in the third quarter or 19.5% annualized. Included within this production are originations from our branch channel of $9.5 million and $23 million from our indirect channel. The mix for the indirect originations included $15 million in powersport and $8 million in recreational vehicle loans. The commercial team generated $56 million in new and renewed production for the quarter. When adjusting out a commercial customer overdraft at the end of the second quarter, the commercial category was flat on a linked quarter basis. However, within the commercial category, we saw an increase in line commitments of $13.9 million while line usage increased just $3.1 million over the quarter. Unplanned payoffs were up over quarter one and quarter two. Overall the commercial pipeline continues to be very healthy and supportive of our targeted annual growth rates. The risk profile continued to improve with large credits now making up just 3.2% of the portfolio. The portfolio continues to be diversified by loan type and by size. Page 10 provides some information on our capital as well as four quarter rolling averages for return on assets and return on equity. We are targeting tangible common equity to range between 8.5% and 9.5%. Our plan is to retain capital for organic loan growth and return capital through a consistent dividend payout plan and share repurchase plan. Tangible common equity totaled $248.9 million or 9.81% of tangible assets at September 30, 2016 as compared to 10.48% for the same quarter one-year ago. Over the last year, we had deployed capital organically with $142.4 million or 9.7% growth in average loans and $159.9 million or 6.9% growth in total assets. Over the same period, we have returned capital through dividends and share repurchases. This includes our recently announced $0.02 or 25% increase in our quarterly dividend to the current rate of $0.10 per share effective with our November 15, 2016 dividend. And since the start of 2015, we have repurchased 2.12 million shares of IBCP. At September 30, 2016, our tangible book value per share is $11.72 per share, up from last quarter's $11.49 per share. I will make a few more comments on the subject in my closing remarks. But at this time, I would like to turn the presentation over to Rob Schuster to share a few comments on our financials, credit quality, and management's outlook for the remainder of 2016.