Mitchell Waycaster
Analyst · Raymond James. Please go ahead
Thank you, Robin. Looking at our results for the first quarter of 2019, net income was $45.1 million, as compared to $33.8 million for the first quarter of 2018. Our diluted – our basic and diluted EPS were $0.77 for the first quarter, as compared to $0.69 and $0.68, respectively, for the first quarter of 2018. During the first quarter of 2019, our earnings represented a return on assets of 1.44% and a return on equity of 8.86%. Turning our focus to our balance sheet. Total assets at March 31, 2019 were approximately $12.86 billion, as compared to approximately $12.93 billion at December 31, 2018. While total loans at March 31, 2019 grew slightly when compared to December 31, 2018, loans not purchased increased $175.9 million to $6.6 billion at March 31, 2019, as compared to $6.4 billion at December 31, 2018. Loan production continues to be strong at $374 million for the first quarter of 2019, which resulted in annualized non-purchased loan growth of 11% on a linked-quarter basis. Although somewhat elevated levels of payoffs remain, we did experience a slight decrease in loan payoffs as compared to the previous quarter. And we remain optimistic about our execution of strategic initiatives throughout our footprint, which we believe will drive increased loan production, as well as gain market share as we move into the second quarter of 2019. More specifically, new talent added during recent quarters, specifically market leaders, commercial lenders and producers throughout our footprint are now fully integrated and we are beginning to see the results of our recruiting efforts in our pipeline. We continue to recruit and hire new talent to increase market share and take advantage of disruption opportunities throughout our footprint. Still we remain disciplined in our underwriting standards, including pricing and structure and will not concede to competition if we believe the structure or terms are too aggressive for our business model. On the liability side of the balance sheet, we grew total deposits to $10.3 billion at March 31, 2019 from $10.1 billion at December 31, 2018. Non-interest bearing deposits averaged $2.3 billion, or 23.1% of average deposits for 2018, compared to $1.8 billion, or 22.4% of average deposits for the same period in 2018. Looking forward, we are both excited and optimistic about future loan production and growth on both sides of our balance sheet, given our current pipeline, markets, talent in our core bank, product offerings and commercial bank and specialty lines. Shifting to our asset quality. At March 31, 2019, our overall credit quality metrics continue to remain strong. As a percentage of total assets, all credit quality metrics, including NPAs, loans 30 to 89 days past due and our internal watch list are at or near historic lows. Net loan charge-offs were $691,000, or 0.03% of average total loans on an annualized basis for the first quarter of 2019, as compared to $584,000, or 0.03% of average total loans on an annualized basis for the fourth quarter of 2018. The provision for loan losses was $1.5 million for the first quarter of 2019, as compared to $1 million for the fourth quarter of 2018 and $1.8 million for the first quarter of 2018. Now I’ll turn the call over to Renasant’s Chief Operating and Financial Officer, Kevin Chapman, for additional discussion of our financial results. Kevin?