Chuck Shaffer
Analyst · SunTrust. Please go ahead
Thank you, Denny and thank you all for joining us this morning. As I provide my comments, I’ll reference the slide deck which can be found at www.seacoastbanking.com. I’ll start this morning on Slide 5 discussing some of the highlights for the quarter. Net revenue increase 21% year-over-year to $57.2 million and adjusted net income was up 37% to $15.1 million. Sequentially, net revenue increased 5% or $2.5 million and adjusted net income was up 20% or $2.5 million. Adjusted return on tangible common equity ended the quarter at 12.8%. Adjusted return on tangible assets was 1.16% for the quarter and the adjusted efficiency ratio declined to 57.7%. All three ratios have improved meaningfully from one year ago and this improvement evidences our continued progress towards our vision 2020 objectives and commitment to creating value for shareholders. Unlike prior quarters the impact of acquisitions of branch reductions were more modest in Q3 highlighting the underlying earnings momentum and the outlook to continue to build tangible book value per share. In early 2017 we engaged in a $200 million equity transaction that included the issuance of $50 million in new equity to support growth. Over the course of the year this capitalism has been employed in a productive manner already offsetting most of the initial EPS dilution from the share issuance. Additionally, we’ve increased tangible book value per share from $9.37 at start of the year to $10.95 at the current quarter. That’s a 17% increase in nine months. By year end we’ll close on three accretive acquisitions exiting the Seacoast franchise into Tampa with the GulfShore and NorthStar purchases and strengthening our presence in South Florida with the Palm Beach Community Bank acquisition. Moving forward one slide, Slide 6. Denny mentioned that third quarter was impacted by Hurricane Irma. The storm cost two full weeks of business interruption as one week was spent on preparation and one week spent on recovery. The impact of Irma on the quarter was approximately $0.01 per share. Revenue was impacted in the form of waived service charges, slower activity in wealth management, and delayed closings on loans. We incurred direct expenses of $0.4 million primarily compensation for staff working throughout the storm to ensure our customers had digital and web access at all times. Remote support from our backup site Nashville, Tennessee and recovery expenses to bring our branch network back online. We remove these directing incremental expenses from the presentation of adjusted results. No adjustment has been made for the revenue impacts. Looking more deeply as the quarter, let’s move to Slide 7 net interest income. Net interest income was up $1.6 million sequentially and as anticipated the net interest margin was 10 basis points sequentially. The result of the lower accretion on both securities and loans when compared to the prior quarter as well as higher interest expense on deposits and borrowings. This is in line with the guidance we provided the last quarter, the net interest margin in the low-to-mid 370’s. And as a reminder the prior quarter benefited from accretion that was above our normal run rate for both loans and securities. Looking forward and inclusive of NorthStar and Palm Beach Community Bank, we expect the net interest margin to be in the mid 370’s in the fourth quarter. An increase to the high 370’s by the second quarter of 2018, assuming no change in short or long term interest rates. This includes the 11 basis points of accretion, which will remain volatile as we move forward. Both NorthStar and Palm Beach Community Bank will be modestly accretive to NIM, primarily the result to higher yielding loan portfolios. And looking forward to changing mix from securities the loan outstandings over the coming quarters should offset modest to increases in deposit rates based on our loan production targets. We remain asset sensitive with a 100 basis points to 200 basis points parallel increase in rates would equate to approximately 4% to 7% improvement net interest income over the next 12 months. And a 7% to 13% improvement net interest income on a 12 month to 24 month period. We’ll continue to manage to an asset sensitive balance sheet should bolstered by very valuable low cost deposit portfolio. A 25 basis point increase in the Fed funds rate was results in approximately $0.02 per share increase and earnings on an annualized basis. We do not expect to two acquisitions to meaningfully impact our asset sensitive interest rate risk position. Moving to Slide 8, adjusted non-interest income increased $1 million over the prior quarter and is up $1.7 million from the prior year’s third quarter. Of the $1 million increased over the prior quarter mortgage banking fees represented $866,000 in large part due to the $57.7 million sale of conforming residential mortgages they were originated in prior periods. The sales transacted to managed on balance sheet liquidity and monetize gains given the fall in long term rates during the quarter. Looking forward we’ll continue to take advantage of these tax opportunities if they arise. The increase in bank owned life insurance was the result of $30 million investment made late in the third quarter with the first year expected return of approximately 6.2% on a tax equivalent basis. Of note, service charges on deposits, interchange income, and wealth management fees were impacted by Hurricane Irma due to the two weeks business disruption I mentioned previously. We continue higher results in other income, as a result to pricing changes we implemented in the second quarter, increased demand for interest rate swaps by our commercial borrowers and more modestly gains on sale from SVA related production. Looking forward, we expect those swap related income and the gain on sale from SVA related productions to continue to improve into 2018. Moving one slide forward to Slide 9, adjusted non-interest expense was down $1 million from the prior quarter and up $2.7 million from the prior year’s third quarter. The quarter-over-quarter decrease was a result of the full impact of consolidation of five branches in 2017 improved expenses discipline and the benefit of the net gain on other real estate owned and REIT to those assets. The adjusted non-interest expense to average tangible asset ratio declined to 2.50% for the quarter from 2.6% in the third quarter of 2016. This quarter highlights the underlying adjusted expense run rate for Seacoast’s exclusive of the two acquisition spending. In aggregate, the two acquisitions will add approximately $1.6 million of non-interest expense to the fourth quarter and approximately $2 million for quarter to 2018. We continue to carefully balance investments with current earnings and anticipate making investments of approximately $4.5 million in 2018 to improve our processes and tools for commercial banking invest in talent tools for enterprise risk management and technology functions and further upgrade our analytics and digital marketing capabilities. These investments will help to scale organization appropriately and set the stage for sustainable high quality earnings growth in 2019 and beyond. These investments are not expected to impact our objective of exiting 2018with a tangible efficiency ratio in the low 50’s. Our continued growth in top line revenue in combination with continued expense discipline throughout the franchise creates opportunities to make investments necessary to achieve our vision 2020 targets. We’re well on our way through our previously announced goal of closing 20% of our locations – retail locations in the next 24 months to 36 months. We have consolidated five branches year-to-date will recurring another two to three branches in 2018 and two to three in 2019. In addition, we’ll consolidate three locations as part of our acquisitions of NorthStar and Palm Beach Community Bank. Branches are still valuable to customers for more complex transactions and keep our brand visible to customers and prospects. But simple task such as depositing funds are rapidly migrating to digital world. We’re clearly building an integrated approach to meeting our customers’ needs. We now provide a full suite a mobile products, online technology, remote ATM locations, call center convenience, and rebranded retail locations for our customers. We believe this integrated approach aligns with today’s customers expectations. As we move forward, we’ll continue to monitor the ever increasing rotation of customer preference to digital and react accordingly. We’ve benefited – we recorded at $7.9 million income tax provision in the third quarter 2017. The quarter tax provision benefited from the adoption of ASU 2016-9, improvements in employee share based payment accounting. As a result, we recorded a benefit of $137,000 for the quarter and looking ahead we expect our effective tax rate to be approximately 35.5% in the fourth quarter and 35% in 2018. Moving the Slide 10, our adjusted efficiency ratio decreased to 57.7%, in line with our internal objective. Our target is to exit 2017 with an adjusted efficiency ratio near the mid 50’s. As we continue to build a streamline organization and generate strong growth and top line revenue. We expect this ratio to continue to improve into 2018 excluding seasonal impacts of the first quarter. Our 2018 target is to exit the year with an efficiency ratio in the low 50’s. Turning to Slide 11, loan outstandings continue to grow during the third quarter increasing $55 million. Excluding the impact of the conforming mortgage sale, loans for organically $112 million or 3.4% sequentially or 14% annualized. Excluding acquisitions organic loans grew 13% over the prior year. Record production from our commercial team in this quarter was offset somewhat by elevated pay downs. Looking forward, we expect loan production to continue to reflect the underpinnings of a strong Florida economy and continue customer receptivity to our relationship based and community based approach to helping meet client needs. Our pipelines remain very strong at quarter end and near record levels despite Hurricane Irma. The commercial pipeline ended the quarter to $155 million, residential at $64 million and consumer small business at aggregate of $47 million. During 2017, we will have additive teams at GulfShore Bank, lending teams at GulfShore Bank, Palm Beach community Bank, Northstar Bank and the commercial equipment team in Tampa. We continue to focus on building a well diversified loan book. Our commercial loan size – our average commercial loan size is $369,000. Our top 10 relationships as a percentage of total capital or 31% at the end of the third quarter, down from 39% at the end of the third quarter of 2016. Those who attended our Investor Day who were remember that our credit underwriting functions are able to process the volumes that small loan granularity requires. The upside of course is a less risky portfolio. Looking forward, we expect organic loan growth to continue in the mid-teens and the loan yield should remain stable. In the high 460’s low 470’s. This includes the impact of the two acquisitions and excludes any outside non-cash accretion effects from loans included in purchased credit impaired or acquired loan pools. Turning to Slide 12, deposit outstandings grew by $138 million quarter-over-quarter were up $603 million from the third quarter in the prior year. Excluding the impact of acquired deposits total deposits increased 1% from one year prior. Deposit growth across all markets was partially offset by outflow associated with public fund money market accounts. Without this outflow organic deposit growth was 3% year-over-year. Rates paid on deposits increased five basis points to 22 basis points quarter-over-quarter reflecting the lag effect in short term rates – increase in short term rates. Looking ahead we expect grow deposit outstandings in the 6% range with modest increase in deposit rates phase the customers is we compete more aggressively for funding. Turning to Slide 13. Credit quality continues to be strong benefiting from rigorous credit selection that emphasizes through the cycle orientation and builds on customer relationships and well understood known markets and sectors as well as maintaining diversity in loan mix and granularity. The allowance for total loans was 77 basis points at quarter end, down one basis point from the prior quarter. In the non-acquired loan portfolio the A000 ended the quarter at 91 basis points of loans outstanding down four basis from the prior quarter. The declining coverage in the non-acquired loan A000 was a result to improved credit quality and loan mix as well the another quarter a nominal losses in the portfolio. Additionally commercial and commercial real estate concentration risk continues to decline as we continue to maintain a well diversified and granular portfolio. Through our loss for loan losses the non-performing, non-acquire loans during the quarter was 237% compared to 245% in the prior quarter and 210% in the same period one year prior. Non-performing loans continue to be nominal, totaling only $14.4 million. Net charge-offs for $279,000 for the quarter compared to net recoveries of $101,000 in the prior quarter, and net recoveries of $1.5 million in the third quarter of the prior year. Looking forward the provision for credit losses will continue to be influenced by loan growth. And lastly, turning to Slide 14, capital position remains strong. Our common equity Tier 1 capital ratio was 12.4%, total risk based capital ratio was $14.8 and our Tier 1 leverage ratio was 10.2% at September 30. The tangible common equity to tangible asset ratio was 9.1% at quarter end. We expect to achieve our adjusted earnings per share guidance for 2017 or $1.28 to a $1.32 per share and our goal to exit the year was an efficiency ratio in the mid 50’s. We continue to expand our analytic and digital capabilities, generate organic and acquisition related loan growth and capitalize – continue to capitalize on the strong position or strong position in the robust Florida economy. We look forward to your questions. I’ll now turn the call back over then Deny.