Earnings Labs

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (PNFP)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Wed, Jan 17, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Pinnacle Financial Partners Fourth Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. Hosting the call today from Pinnacle Financial Partners is Mr. Terry Turner, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Harold Carpenter, Chief Financial Officer. Please note, Pinnacle’s earnings release and this morning’s presentation are available on the Investor Relations page of their website at www.pnfp.com. Today’s call is being recorded and will be available for replay on Pinnacle’s website for the next 90 days. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. The floor will be opened for your questions following the presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, Pinnacle does not provide earnings guidance or forecasts. During this presentation, we may make comments, which may constitute forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other facts that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Pinnacle Financial to differ materially from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Many of such factors are beyond Pinnacle Financial’s ability to control or predict and listeners are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. A more detailed description of these and other risks is contained in Pinnacle Financial’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. Pinnacle Financial disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this presentation, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, these remarks may include certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. A presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures will be made available on Pinnacle Financial’s website at www.pnfp.com. With that, I’m now going to turn the presentation over to Mr. Terry Turner, Pinnacle’s President and CEO.

Terry Turner

Analyst

Thank you, operator. Good morning. We appreciate you being on the call with us this morning from snowy icy Nashville. We always begin our quarterly earnings call with this dashboard, really two slides. The first reflecting the GAAP measures and second reflecting non-GAAP measures. We like this dashboard because it quickly analyzes the performance and momentum on virtually all the metrics that we use to drive our business. We’ve always believed that revenue growth, earnings growth and asset quality are the three metrics most tightly correlated with share price performance, and so that’s really the focus of the slide. Companies that grow tangible book value typically grow their share price, companies that consistently produce well above median ROTCEs typically trade well above medium PE multiples and so-forth. And so, I think in our case we’re roughly 80% shred business, balance sheet growth is really the key to the revenue growth going forward. So, you got to look at revenue growth, earnings growth and asset quality and some ability to see the pace of growth and the future growth based on what is going on the balance sheet. As most of you know, this quarter was immediately impacted by pretax merger-related charges of $19.1 million, pretax security loss of $8.3 million, and after-tax charges related to the revaluation of our firm’s deferred tax assets of $31.5 million. So, as I say each quarter at least for me given all of the transition, the merger integration, and now the tax law changes the non-GAAP measures that takes these realities into account actually provide greater insight into the core run rates on these important measures, so let me move to those quickly. Looking at those non-GAAP measures, adjusting for the merger-related expenses, the revaluation of our deferred tax assets and loss associated with…

Harold Carpenter

Analyst

Thanks Terry. Revenues excluding securities losses for the quarter increased from $216 million in the third quarter to almost $220 billion in the fourth quarter. Total spread income increased $1.4 million between the third and fourth quarters. Discount accretion decreased $1.3 million during the quarter thus offset the overall spread increase. As always, the dark green line in the chart denotes revenue per share. We reported $2.80 adjusted revenue per share in Q3 and are reporting $2.83 this quarter, again excluding investment securities losses. Obviously, our goal is to continue increase our revenue per share over time. As you all know, it is a lot easier to grow earnings per share with a growing balance sheet and we think we have a great shot at doing that as we enter 2018. As to purchase accounting as many of you know, purchase accounting will be impacted for an extended period of time, but should gradually lessen over time. We have approximately $163 million in loan discount accretion of which a significant amount is expected to amortize over the next two to three years. We recognized $19.1 million in the fourth quarter and anticipate at least $15 million to $18 million in loan discount accretion in the first quarter of 2018. That said, it is important to realize that our balance sheet produces outsider’s growth, which continue to produce ongoing positive traction for our revenues in the future. Concerning loans in the chart indicate average loans for the fourth quarter were $15.5 billion, compared to 15 billion at the end of the third quarter, or an increase of $500 million in average loan balances or an annualized growth rate of better than 13%. We believe we had a strong fourth quarter, particularly in Tennessee where we saw increased loans of $308 million…

Terry Turner

Analyst

All right. I’d just comment quickly, I guess made this point the time to coming down to the presentation, but I want to reiterate that we have completed the integration of BNC. It has been a way over here to announce the transaction early to get it approved closed and now fully implement as a great thing as Harold mentioned, we are fundamentally through the synergy case, a few jobs left and that will be departed during first quarter for the synergy case, they fully realize, but again the work has been done. I think the call through integration, I would say it is well underway and has gone extremely well. We have spent some time in several of the quarterly calls this year talking about the cultural integration, but as a reminder we conducted roughly 10 three-day orientation sessions, largely conducted by Harold and I and other key leaders in the firm, and we will finish that group buyout, we probably got four or five that we will have to do in 2018 to get all those done and completed. I have commented on the revenue synergies. We believe this deal has great revenue synergies that were not included in the 10% accretion target that we’ve already disclosed and now believe we will deliver and that is an important aspect how we drop them out to our revenue fees to asset and target that we talked about earlier in the call. Again, my expectation is, we will be building throughout 2018 towards that level well and again the confidence that we have in Rick Callicutt and hiring momentum that needs to establish we’ve already talked about, 164 C&I bankers over a five-year period of time. The hiring during or since the completion of the merger is on that pace.…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Turner. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from David Feaster with Raymond James. Your line is now open.

David Feaster

Analyst

Hi, good morning guys.

Terry Turner

Analyst

Hi Dave.

David Feaster

Analyst

Congratulations on getting BNC in fully integrated and all that. It’s exciting and it sounds that things are progressing well. I just wanted to get your best estimate of how much of that, if you can quantify, how much of the $40 million cost save estimate is already in your run rate? Given that the technology conversion happened late in the fourth quarter, I would suspect that there is a pretty decent step down still left to actually hit the first quarter numbers? And I guess there is a follow on, was there anything one-time in nature in that other expense line item that kind of popped up in the quarter?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst

Yes, David this is Harold. I think what we wanted - there is about 40 jobs left to come out of the footprint over there. Many of the jobs did come out at the end of December. So, I think as you look forward into the first quarter and our expense run rate, we think our expense run rate is going to be fairly flat. What we do here, as you might expect is, we will give all the races and all that kind of stuff in the first quarter so you will see the legacy footprint and see increased personnel cost from personnel expenses so and so forth. So, we think net-net that our expense run rate will be barely consistent going into the first quarter of next year.

David Feaster

Analyst

Okay. As we look out into 2018 in your crystal ball, how do you think about loan growth. What regions do you expect to see the more strength and have you seen any increased demand thus far from tax reform in your pipeline and pay downs were also expected to be heavy in the fourth quarter, how is that trending?

Terry Turner

Analyst

Dave this is Terry. That’s two or three things. I think in terms of just a broad outlook, if you are looking for a percentage growth rate we would expect to have percentage growth rates to occur in the principal BNC markets, in other words Charlotte, Raleigh, Greenville, and Charleston and I say that because as you know there have been double-digit growers largely based on their CRE practice. We would expect that generally to continue, but we expect to really augment that with building out the C&I platform as we’ve already talked and hired a good number of bankers in the last half of 2017, and they are off to a great start in 2018. So that incremental hiring would accelerate the growth rate over there. I did think it is important to try to make this point, you know we had nice growth in the fourth quarter, I expect the growth to be better in 2018, but I don’t see that primarily as a functional loan demand, in other words what we do for a living, primarily take market share and so my belief is that, so a good part of the growth that we’ve enjoyed thus far and I will project going forward as to move the market share from the large regional and national franchises, perhaps more than loan growth is really tied to the economic growth. I think as it relates to your question, have we seen increased loan demand as a result of the tax law change, my honest answer to that is not yet. I detect some optimism. I believe all along, once you get the tax rate firm that people know what the rate is and when it is effective that will begin the [indiscernible] and so I do have an expectation it will get benefit from the tax law change and you will see some escalation in loan demand, but candidly, I couldn't say that I have seen thus far. And let’s see, you had one more thing there. Pay down, thank you. We - I would say pay down is in the fourth quarter or very high and it’s concentrated I think more in commercial real estate than C&I and as you know the permanent markets are wide on lot of alternatives, a 30-year fixed non-recourse kinds of paper out there for commercial real estate. So, pay downs have been very high in the fourth quarter and we do expect that to continue here in the first half of 2018.

David Feaster

Analyst

Okay. Last one from me. You talked about your CRE concentration and given that the strength, you know BNC is expertise in CRE, you’re expecting that concentration to actually go up near term, but then diminish going forward. I just kind of wanted to hear how you plan on doing that. Are you actually pumping the brakes on CRE lenders or is it simply that the new C&I hires that you’ve made are going to drive C&I growth in excess of CRE in the future?

Terry Turner

Analyst

Well I think it is the true stage that we’re expecting to see in our line of growth faster than the CRE. And again, going back to this idea that’s where the hiring focus is. David, I think we said from the very beginning that our - what the beauty of this transaction and strategy involved with it is that we want to continue the double-digit growth that BNC has enjoyed, but then both on that C&I business, and so the mix will change, but again without an effort to diminish their CRE practice. I think the issue, as it relates to the concentration is generally focused on total risk-based capital in the 100% and 300% guidelines, and so it has been our intent just generally at the firm to stay underneath those two concentration guidelines, and I think what we tried to say here is that in the most recent quarter we had the $31 million revaluation on the deferred tax asset and $8.3 million charge on the boundary structure and so those obviously shrink capital that’s an unplanned shrinkage in capital. So, what we're really trying to communicate was, a we’re closing those concentration limits as exacerbated by those write-downs, and so it may take a few quarters for us to rebuild the equity back associated with those write-downs and so that’s the phenomenal and that we’re talking about there what was - and we may temporarily breach those guidelines, but late in the year we ought to have produced enough capital to get back inside those guidelines.

David Feaster

Analyst

Got it. That’s terrific. Thank you.

Terry Turner

Analyst

All right. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Scouten with Sandler O’Neill. Your line is now open.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Great. Hi guys, good morning.

Terry Turner

Analyst

Hi Stephen.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Question for you, I guess maybe more for Harold on the core NIM, Harold, I was thinking, you had said after last quarter, we would see flat or maybe increasing core NIM, and I’m wondering what kind of changed during the quarter that led to the downside there, and maybe, I know you spoke a little bit on the 7 basis points of higher deposit cost, but that obviously came in a quarter where we saw no fed rate hikes. I’m wondering on your thoughts on deposit costs next quarter with the impact of the Fed hike.

Harold Carpenter

Analyst

Yes, we think that the core NIM decrease is primarily attributable to increased funding cost. The - I think we have got a lot of calls during the quarter about raising rates the - about 25% of our interest-bearing deposits are on our sheet rates, so we do negotiated rates for about 75% of our funding book. So, it was on the - we believe it is on the funding side Steve.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Okay that makes sense, and then in 1Q, I mean do you think we will see more, I mean will we see disproportionately more than a 7-basis point increase, could that be more like 12 to 14 just with the rate hike or…?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst

Yes, we are not planning for that kind of increase going into the first quarter of next year, but we should see measured increases in funding cost for the rest of the year.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Okay. So, from here I guess that core NIM do you think it will be flattish from here is that kind of your…

Harold Carpenter

Analyst

That’s what we believe. We got the benefit of a rate increase in December to help us in the first quarter. What’s going to go against us in the first quarter is, we have got two less days in the first quarter, so that is not helpful, but we think we will be able to defend the margin within rate increase.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Okay. And on the North Carolina, kind of Virginia franchise growth, I know I think 2Q growth was like $190 million in the last two quarters have been in the low to mid 60s, what’s the main driver at change there, is that just more rapid CRE payoffs, is that some sort of just mind shift change or pricing changes relative to what BNC used to do or - and I guess more importantly is that 190 million range something we can expect you to get back to at any point soon or is that kind of the longer term goal once the C&I folks come online.

Terry Turner

Analyst

Yes, I think - so you’re right, I think the production and the net production in the latter half of 2017 was less than a production in the first half 2017, but Steve I guess I would may be try to help you think about what’s going on in that footprint, we have changed all the size, we have shut down 8 to 10 houses, we rolled out new computer software for every person in that system refreshed all their - not computer software, but the computer itself, the PCs. We have reached [ph] in the phone system. We’ve retrained every person in that footprint with a significant amount of training on the upgrade because even though they were on the Jack Henry SilverLake, they weren't on the current version and the new version required procedural modifications and so forth, and so it is just an extraordinary amount of change that requires an internal focus, which I think would be the principal driver. It is a fact that the pay downs have been higher than usual as we just don't see or read as well, but our expectations for the growth in 2018 is significantly higher than their growth in 2017, and again the budgets have been built that reflect that and so forth.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Okay. That’s really helpful thanks Terry. And then maybe one just last housekeeping item following up on David's question on that. Other expense line item, was there anything unusual that cost that jump? I know you said, kind of flattish expense run rate as a whole for 1Q 2018, but just curious about that specific jump and what kind of drove that 4 million [indiscernible]?

Terry Turner

Analyst

Yes, what drove is for FDIC and franchise tax expenses and so those numbers stabilize going into the first quarter of next year. So, we have a little extra money accrued to those at the end of December.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Okay, so that kind of 16 million is probably the right run rate moving forward?

Terry Turner

Analyst

Yes. Think so.

Stephen Scouten

Analyst

Okay. Thanks guys appreciate it and congrats on a great year.

Terry Turner

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jared Shaw with Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Jared Shaw

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Hi good morning.

Terry Turner

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Hi good morning.

Jared Shaw

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

If you could circle back on the expenses on the compensation cost, you were saying that the benefit from some of the headcount reduction in fourth quarter will probably be offset by some of the seasonality of going into first quarter, shall we see that shall we see that then come down with those 40-additional people come offline when we lose some of that accelerated FICA cost? Should you see second quarter salaries and benefits decline for the third quarter?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Yes Jared, I think you will see some of that as we look at our plan for 2018, our expense line, we don't think is going to deviate very much quarter-to-quarter. So, particularly with the hiring plan that we have given our line managers, I don't know if you would see a big win fall from the 40-people coming out.

Jared Shaw

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Okay thanks. And then on the C&I side, I heard you when you were saying you haven't seen the demand coming out from the tax side, but do you think that tax uncertainty impacted sort of the trends in fourth quarter that we had that we saw on the C&I side in terms of the high levels of pay downs or people not making decision to do much or trying to come in early?

Terry Turner

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Jared that’s an interesting question, I guess specific answer to the question is, I don’t know. I guess this is a sort of personal opinion and kind of feel. I do believe that uncertainty has weighed on loan demand here in 2017. I think I have said this before and I know if it gets when, I guess Sandler's conference in November last year. I guess 2016 people wanted to know if loan demand had increased in the first week since Trump was elected and of course you know it doesn’t work like that. But I don’t think we ever saw a real increase in loan demand in sort of the first year, the new administration, I do think that was primarily a function of just an uncertainty around the tax law. But I guess to your question is, is that it account for any slowing in the fourth quarter. I don't know. I wouldn't think it would be different in the fourth quarter versus quarter 3, 2, or 1 as it relates to just the uncertainty itself. Jared, I'll say this, I don't really want to spend a lot of time on politics other than say the demand and political discourse is difficult and choppy and changes every day. And you can see the move, the sentiment changing. And so, I think that, well I believe you will see increased loan demand as a result of the tax law. I did think there is just such volatility and headline risk that it's hard for people to really get comfortable and say, okay, I think things are solid, let’s go. So that is a long way to say, I think loan demand will pick up as a result of certainly around the tax law change, but I do think that may be muted a little bit just difficult international situation and the political discourse domestically.

Jared Shaw

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Okay, thank you. And then how does the pipeline, how does the C&I pipeline look now as we are going into the first quarter?

Terry Turner

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Our pipelines are good. You know, we use a methodology here where generally people are forecasted in the quarter at a time, and so the general focus is on what you - what are the high gaining items that are supposed to occur in a 90-day period, and so you rebuild that forecast at the beginning of each quarter. So, there is still some work going on there, but I would say that our pipelines would feel solid as we go into the first quarter and we expect that good loan demand in the first quarter.

Jared Shaw

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Okay and then just finally from me on the securities restructuring, we have got - mostly on the meaning side, mostly on the mortgage side and I have been hearing you're saying that you changed duration, but did you change product type at all? And then with the stuff that is so well to do where do you expect to see that going up?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Yes, I think what you'll see is probably less of our bond book in mortgage backs. We will probably see a little increase in the municipals and more into some floating rate security. So, other than that it is not going to be a big change Jared.

Jared Shaw

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Will Curtiss with Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Will Curtiss

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Good morning guys.

Terry Turner

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Hi Will.

Will Curtiss

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Harold, can we just go back real quick, in terms of the core NIM thoughts, I think you said, the 333 you expect to hold that flat in the first quarter and then if I heard correctly, the securities purchase will add another 4 basis points to 5 basis points throughout the course of the year, is that correct?

Terry Turner

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Yes, I think that is true Will. We think this core NIM is going to be fairly flat. We think the GAAP NIM is probably going to be fairly flat. So, over time we think the bond book restructure, we think maybe some increased yields from our loan book will be helpful, but the critical think that we have got to keep an eye on are these funding costs, and so that will be what we monitor all year long.

Will Curtiss

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Okay. And then maybe another clarification question here, in terms of the expenses it sounds like the 104-core rate that you guys had, the core number you had this quarter that seems to be a pretty good number, I guess for the near-term, you know in terms of expenses and increment 104 should it hold pretty steady with the caveat that that increases with as you bring in additional talent or how should we think about that 104 number going forward?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

That 104 is probably a good run rate for us based on what we have in our plan, which includes additional hires. If we are able to exceed our revenue goals that number is going to go with increased incentive cost.

Will Curtiss

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Okay.

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

So, 104 seems to be a pretty good number.

Will Curtiss

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Got it. All right and then, this is the last one from me and in the slides tax rate, I think you had 22% in your pro forma exercise their slide 13, is that what you are assuming would guide us to use for the tax rate going forward 22%?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Yes, we think 21% to 22% will be a good number for us in 2018 all things in.

Will Curtiss

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Got it. Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tyler Stafford with Stephens. Your line is now open.

Tyler Stafford

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Hi, good morning everyone.

Terry Turner

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Hi Tyler.

Tyler Stafford

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Hi, I wanted to just follow up one more time on the core margin outlook from here, does that - I guess the commentary for holding both the core and GAAP margin relatively flat, does that assume any further interest rate increases this year?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Yes, we’ve got three increases in our plan, one early part of the year, one mid-year and one at the end of the year.

Tyler Stafford

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

So, three translates into flattish margins. Okay got it. I think you guys don't have the disclosure in the queue just in terms of your asset sensitivity from here with the combined to franchises, can you just help us, you know how much of the loan portfolio repriced with December and how much actual benefit are you getting from each incremental rate hike?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

It is about [indiscernible] so outlook or reprice. So, and I think we put in the Q that we will modestly assess at the end of September.

Tyler Stafford

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Okay, got it. And then just maybe lastly from me just housekeeping I just want to make sure I understood on the BHG expectations for the year, the net contribution to Pinnacle would be that 12% to 15% year-over-year growth rate?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Yes, we think so. We were about 38 million for the year, so we’re targeted to about 12% to 15%.

Tyler Stafford

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Okay. Got it. The rest of my questions have been answered, thanks so much.

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · Stephens. Your line is now open.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Catherine Mealor with KBW. Your line is now open.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Thanks, good morning.

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Good morning.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Most of my questions have been asked and answered, but wanted to follow-up just on the commercial real estate conversation, so is there, I guess how do you think this could - could managing to this 300% level impacted growth in any ways you know maybe in the latter half of the year, and if not is something that you may consider as a way to stay under the 300% level is growth really to take off as it seems like it will?

Terry Turner

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Yes, let me talk about the volume side of that first and then let Harold comment on sub-debt component of the question there. I think on the CRE side [indiscernible] you know what are these growth for the company ought to be that’s a pretty dramatic growth rate you know generally what we do for a dividend buyout, which is modest. So, you can see the growth in the tangible capital of the company, which again will try to light into the risk-based capital there, and so if you are in 2017 as an example, we grow the tangible book value 18%, you know maybe you do 15% is something like that, but the point is, as you are growing your capital base, you can generally run the CRE growth rate at a similar percentage and so I don't view it to be a meaningful constraint, I’m not saying we don't have to pay attention toward any of that count, but I would not view it to be a meaningful constraint on loan volume, but Harold you want to comment on the [indiscernible].

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Yes, Catherine we have - we get a lot of inbound calls from your colleagues on the other side of the wall about the sub-debt market that was wide open and pricing is very good right now on all that staff, but I guess where we are is, we'd rather not - we want to see if we can press the needle as Terry is talking about right now and just seeing if we can kind of maintain our own growth curve as it currently exists with the subject we have on the books. We think we will generate a lot of capital this year to help support that commercial real estate book.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Yes, it makes sense. And then to your point, if C&I growth really starts to take off as it seems like it will particularly with all the hires you’ve had and you’re generating capital as quickly as you are then I mean you're not going to be growing that ratio probably very much from here, so yes, I appreciate that comment thank you so much. And finally, last just [indiscernible] question, was there anything in the investment security the investment services line that’s kind of temporary this quarter that was a little bit higher than we had modelled, or is that a good run rate to grow from next year?

Terry Turner

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Well there is a couple of things going on in that number in the fourth quarter. One is, that there is a kind of an annual number in there. I don't think it was so a large number, I want to say it was $400,000 or something like that that we get annually, but I think that program has suspended so it is not going to repeat, but I think the larger number or the more important thing are the hires that we got out of SunTrust in October. Those people have hit the ground running and they are here in Nashville and so that number is being impacted by that group that is building the book of a pretty sizable amount during the fourth quarter and will continue to build it for next year.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

All right great. All right thank you so much.

Terry Turner

Analyst · KBW. Your line is now open.

Thanks Catherine.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jennifer Demba with SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Jennifer Demba

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Thank you, good morning.

Terry Turner

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Hi Jennifer.

Jennifer Demba

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Hi. My question is on deposit. You said about 75% of your interest-bearing deposits are negotiated rates, can you just talk about specifically give us some color on what you did during the quarter in terms of rate adjustments and secondly can you talk about the incentives for core deposit growth all the way up the line to the C-suite?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Okay on the first question on funds, on funding cost, we did adjust sheet rates in November. I believe at the end of October, I think we raised sheet rates 15 basis points, 20 basis points during that time and Jennifer what was the second question?

Jennifer Demba

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Can you talk about the incentive system for growing core deposits from the line all the way up to the C-suite?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

I mean we don’t have any kind of one off programs to provide people additional incentive for just core deposits. Our incentive system is based totally on what core earnings are and what revenues are. So, that is how we measure.

Terry Turner

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Hi Jennifer, I might just add a little color to Harold comments. Just as a reminder, 100% of the associates in this firm participate in annual cash incentives, excluding commission based people, so everybody is participating in annual cash incentives, but we all make our number the same way from the bottom of the organization to the C-suite, everybody is eyeing that three things, we have got to clear nonperforming assets threshold, we have got to grow our earnings and we have to grow our revenues. They will grow the top line, grow the bottom line and maintain strong asset quality. And if we do that all our associates participate in the annual cash payout to target, if we overachieve they get more, but if we underachieve they get less. And I would just say that we did that and a lot of companies run the score cards that I think it produced outcomes like what we saw at Wells Fargo and I would say they are not the disparity I’m just saying it is drives people to worry about this product this cross-sell, this sort of thing. We have decided not to do that, we try to aim at our company in producing top line growth and bottom-line growth, but within that context you can be sure and I think we have demonstrated track record of mobilizing our associates to gathering deposit because we are able to make this point a, here is how the earnings plan works. You know, the number one revenue item we have is loan growth. To get that loan growth done we have got to produce this amount of core deposit growth. You know we give them the funding percentage that we'll accept for noncore. You got to produce this in core deposit and people will go out and build initiatives together core deposit. So, there are plenty of incentives in the system, but it is not tied specifically to that number.

Jennifer Demba

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Okay. Thank you. My last question is on NIM, I know we beat this subject to death, but Harold just a clarification, so if the GAAP margin is going to be essentially flat doesn't that mean there needs to be some expansion in the core margin to offset the lower accretion?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Yes, you’re right on that, but I don't think you don't see meaningful movement throughout the course of this year either way on that. We just are planning to depend this core margin for the rest of this year.

Jennifer Demba

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Okay, terrific. Thanks a lot.

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is now open.

All right.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Brian Martin with FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Hi guys.

Terry Turner

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Hi Brian.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Harold just going back to the [indiscernible] you talked about the sheet rates being up 10, 15 basis points in November, the other was 75% I guess what was going on with those [indiscernible] suggesting maybe you won’t see as much pressure in the next quarter, I guess is that what you are thinking about?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Yes Brian, the 75% is all one-off negotiations with individual depositors and so our financial - our relationship managers, financial advisors have a great deal of attitude with respect to how they manage their individual clients. So, over the course of the quarter each month during the month, we are watching what those deposit costs are, how they are moving. Obviously, the larger depositors are the ones we hear about more often and so we get that information anecdotally.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Okay. All right. Just going back to easy question on the margin just you talked about being kind of flat, is that flat in the full-year 2017 level or is the fourth quarter kind of - in the fourth quarter GAAP number?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Yes, we are looking at our GAAP margins for our plan are to be fairly flat for the rest of the year. We’re not seeing a whole lot of dilution of our GAAP margins.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Right. And that is the GAAP margin at fourth quarter or for the full year 2017?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

For the fourth quarter.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

For the fourth quarter. Got you. Okay, and then just a couple of other housekeeping in terms of, you talked about the losses on the capital market, how much of an impact was that, is that meaningful in the number is it - so that we have that?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

I think it was about - run rate difference was about $700,000, I believe.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Okay. They should go back in. And then just on, you talked about the mortgage revenue fourth quarter being weak based on kind of the outlook, when you look at it - similarly like BHG when you look at the year-over-year growth in mortgage, kind of your expectations, I mean is there a similar range as the BHG when you look at full year mortgage for 2017 versus 2018?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Yes, we will count on mortgage to continue to hit their strive for 2018. We think we operate in great markets and there is no reason to expect that we will see any kind of decrease in the mortgage in our mortgage plan.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Okay. But I mean something in the range of what you are expecting on BHG, I mean if it is over 10% of growth than mortgage is a reasonable expectation today?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Yes. I would say 12% is a good number for them. I don't know exactly what I have in their plan for next year, but it all will be somewhere in the 70 [ph].

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Okay, got you. And then I think Terry talked about this but just those target ranges Terry, you guys kind of going back to revisit those at least on the ROA numbers, tax rate change, but just over the next couple of quarters it sounds like the ranges where raising, especially with the - I guess with the fees being a little bit light, but the others being a little bit strong, that trend kind of plays out the next couple of quarters, but maybe begins to kind of normalize at your targeted range out in maybe six quarters out or four quarters to six quarters out, is that how to think about a three-year kind of stay above the range one being below and [indiscernible]?

Terry Turner

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Yes, I think that is the right. So, Brian let me just back up and say generally we like those targets out, they - if you sort of hit the mid-point of each of the third component ranges, you would hit the mid-point of ROA range. We believe we are going to operate relatively high and it takes the tax law of the table for a minute, we believe that we are going to operate relatively high in the ROA range and the way we will do that is we will be short of the fee range as we build out the fee businesses in North Carolina, but we will either be north of the range or high in the range above the mid-point on those other three measures.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Okay. I got you. That’s helpful and then the tax benefit will be a positive to the ROA, I guess as you kind of go back [indiscernible]?

Terry Turner

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Yes, it ought to be meaningful impact.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Okay all right. And just a last thing from me, maybe I missed it when you guys mentioned it but the, you talked about the 64 people Terry you kind of monitor that going forward, how many, maybe I missed it, but of the 64 how many are in board already or currently?

Terry Turner

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Seven. Well seven through 1231, I think we've actually hired a couple since year-end as well, but probably the way to keep track of it is just think about three quarter ends seven, I guess in the first five months.

Brian Martin

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Seven in the first five months. All right that's all I had guys. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Terry Turner

Analyst · FIG Partners. Your line is now open.

Thank you, Brian.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Nancy Bush with NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Nancy Bush

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Just a broad question about the rural versus the urban markets, Harold do you have sort of a rough estimate of the difference in deposit funding cost between those two markets or types of markets?

Harold Carpenter

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

I really don't. I don't know what we have as far as funding cost as some of our smaller markets.

Nancy Bush

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Okay. And have you - Terry this is probably a question for you, do you expect that you are going to be able to make sort of a significant difference in the trajectory of growth between, you know the rural markets and the urban markets because one of the questions when you what BNC was look at all the rural markets therein, are they going to dampen their growth et cetera et cetera.

Terry Turner

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Nancy, I guess I would say two or three things. Maybe first let’s try to create I guess a common language here on rural versus urban, I believe that our company is primarily in urban markets, and when I say primarily I don't mean like north of 50%, I mean like 98%, you know, and so if you- SNL has a tool that you’re probably familiar with, we are now scoring that out. We will be extraordinarily high in urban and in fact I don’t know, but wanted two franchises in the country that might be more urban than we. So, I guess I would start there. And then underneath that as you know, we in conjunction with the BNC transaction and I guess there were either 9 or 10 offices that were closed. Again those weren't exclusively rural markets by definition, but they were underperforming markets, some of which would might fit that description and so again that will be an influence on growth rates as well, but on the, in your comment about transition in the rural footprint, we don’t have an initiative to focus on candidly, you know how we take this, whatever it is, 1% or 2% of rural franchise and develop initiatives to optimize that to be honest with you, we’re looking to Rick Callicutt and his team and I have a high degree of confidence that when he overlays the staffing methodology that we use the larger legal limits that we have and bolting on the C&I business that it will transform the growth rate on both sides of the balance sheet in that footprint. So…

Nancy Bush

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Okay, and I just have another question on mortgage banking, I mean it looks like or it sounds like you guys are really projecting sort of a step-up in growth there. I mean are you hiring producers on that side or is this product that you are going to be taking to the BNC market or if you could just give us a little color on your expectations because as rates rise theoretically, mortgage production should be going down, but obviously you’re not expecting that and are you moving market share in some significant markets?

Terry Turner

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Yes, I think Nancy, I will think about it this way. As I have been saying there are two components or two main thrusts that lead us to believe we'll increase mortgage. I think if you were to talk to Rick Callicutt or any of his market leads and so forth, they would describe the mortgage business that they ran as a siloed business. In other words, it was run as if it were almost a standalone mortgage company. So, they hired originators. And the vast majority of the production in that company came directly from those mortgage originators in their personal contacts. Our model is different than that substantially. If you look in the legacy Pinnacle footprint, the mortgage originators here and as a rule we will generally get at least half their production from referral from bankers. In other words, the bankers control these clients and therefore we will have opportunities to look at mortgage request or able to hand those to our mortgage origination staff. And so that swing is a big swing in the case of BNC to harvest because they have, as you know a great client set that has been virtually and test. Speaking of the banking clients as supposed to the mortgage clients. So, the banking clients have been virtually untapped in terms of the mortgage capabilities there, and so we view that to be substantially and the second major thrust is we are hiring mortgage originators. And so, to your question about market share that is generally I believe market share is, we hire additional people who have books of business or client contacts from a separate source and so it is a market share move play.

Nancy Bush

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Okay. I think I'll just ask one final question, do you expect that, I know you have said, okay we are not thinking about deals, we are not et cetera, but you got to think about into the future I mean how scalable do you see your platform right now, I mean is there is some tens of billions that you can give us in terms of it is scalable of the here and then we have to add, I mean can you just give us some thoughts about your sort of technological ability to expand?

Terry Turner

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Nancy if I can be honest, I don’t know the answer to that question. I know that it is substantially larger than where we are now. But yes, I'd be hesitant just to throw a number out there without having a little more structured analysis behind. So, I am not sure I am really prepared to give you an answer to that question. I might go at it this way, I think you know, we have said with no acquisition we believe we will grow to be a $28 billion asset company. So, without any of that organic growth and so forth. So, we are we are confident that what we are doing it is easily inside that. My guess is that you could probably do another $20 billion in assets with the basic operating platform that we have, but I’m just giving you a guess, Nancy. I'd want to qualify it as that. I don't have a structured analysis behind that, but obviously we will be working on that as far as strategic planning process.

Nancy Bush

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Okay great. I appreciate the effort.

Terry Turner

Analyst · NAB Research. Your line is now open.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

I’m not showing any further questions in queue at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program and you may now disconnect at this time. Everybody have a great day.