Good day, and welcome to the Landmark Bancorp Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Scheopner, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our call today to discuss Landmark's earnings and results of operations for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending 2019. Joining the call with me to discuss various aspects of our 2019 performance is Mark Herpich, Chief Financial Officer for the company. Before we get started, I would like to remind our listeners that some of the information we will be providing today falls under the guidelines for forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of these guidelines, I must point out that any statements made during this presentation that discuss our hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements, and our actual results could differ materially from those expressed. Additional information on these factors is included from time to time in our 10-K and 10-Q filings which can be obtained by contacting the company or the SEC. I'm pleased to report that Landmark achieved record results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2019. We are particularly pleased with the loan growth Landmark's delivering across our footprint as we are seeing the benefit of our expansion of Landmark's lending team over the past couple of years. We reported record net earnings of $3.3 million or $0.71 per share on a fully diluted basis for the fourth quarter 2019. For the year ending December 31, 2019, Landmark's net earnings totaled $10.7 million or $2.31 per diluted share. We delivered loan growth of 8.7% in 2019 along with strong core earnings. Our 2019 return on average assets calculates to 1.07%, and return on average equity for 2019 was 10.58%. Landmark remains financially strong, very well capitalized with a strong credit quality in our loan portfolio. We are delivering healthy growth in loans and total assets.…

Thanks, Michael, and good morning to everyone. Michael mentioned our record net earnings for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019, and now I would like to make a few comments on various elements comprising those results. Starting with highlights of the fourth quarter income statement. Net interest income was $8.0 million, an increase of $840,000 or 11.7% in comparison to the prior year's fourth quarter. The improvement in net interest income was attributable to a $34.0 million or 3.9% increase in average interest-earning assets to $906.3 million in comparison to the prior year fourth quarter period. This growth was entirely attributable to loan growth of $51.9 million or 10.7% as our average investment balance actually declined by $18.2 million. Landmark's net interest margin on a tax-equivalent basis improved to 3.61% in the fourth quarter of 2019 as compared to 3.37% in the same period of 2018. The net interest margin benefited significantly from the increase in average loan balances as yields on our loans receivable increased while our overall cost of interest-bearing liabilities declined during the quarter. Looking at the provision for loan losses. Our analysis resulted in providing $400,000 to the allowance for loan losses in the fourth quarter of 2019 as compared to $500,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018. Noninterest income increased by $660,000 or 19.7% to $4.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the same period of 2018. Our core banking business delivered significant increases in noninterest income with a $492,000 rise in gains on sales of loans and a $147,000 increase in fees and service charges. The gains on sales of loans were driven by a higher volume of one-to-four family real estate loans originated for sale. And fees and service charges increased due to higher fee income on…

Mark, thanks for your comments. As Mark noted, net loans outstanding as of the end of 2019 totaled $532.2 million, up 8.7% from our year-end 2018 total. During the fourth quarter of 2019, we delivered an increase of $12.1 million in net loans outstanding. The loan growth during 2019 is spread across all of our geographic markets. The growth was boosted in part by the midyear 2018 addition of a team of commercial bankers with a specialty and small business, SBA lending, located in our Johnson County, Kansas market. We added another team of commercial bankers in Kansas City at the end of 2018 and during the first part of 2019 who are located in a loan production office that opened in Prairie Village in May. After receiving regulatory permission, we converted the LPO to a bank branch during 3Q '19. As we pursue additional loan growth in 2020, we will continue our credit risk focus of maintaining a diversified mix in the loan portfolio, both in loan types and in geography, across the state. As of year-end 2019, our construction and land loan portfolio balances totaled $22.5 million or 4.2% of our total loan portfolio. Outstanding loan balances in our commercial real estate portfolio totaled $133.5 million, representing 24.8%. The loan balances in both the construction and land and commercial real estate portfolios remained significantly below the regulatory percentage concentration thresholds that would require heightened risk management practices. Commercial and industrial loans were $109.6 million as of December 31, 2019, or 20.4% of the current portfolio. The strong increase in commercial lending contributed significantly to our overall loan growth in 2019. With regard to our agricultural loan portfolio, total balances were $98.6 million or 18.3% of our total portfolio as of the end of 2019. Our mortgage one-to-four family…

Well, thank you. And I want to thank everyone for participating in today's earnings call. I truly appreciate your continued support and confidence in the company, and I look forward to sharing news related to our first quarter 2020 results at our next earnings conference call. Thank you.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.