George Makris
Analyst · KBW -- Brady Gailey with KBW. Your line is now open
Thank you, Steve and welcome to our second quarter earnings conference call. In our press release issued earlier this morning, we reported net income of $55.6 million for the second quarter of 2019, an increase of $2 million or 3.8% compared to the same quarter of last year. Diluted earnings per share were $0.58 for the quarter. Included in the second quarter earnings were $9.9 million in net after-tax non-core items.We had merger related costs of $5.6 million, early retirement program expenses of $2.2 million and branch right-sizing cost of $2.1 million mainly related to the relocation of our Little Rock corporate offices. Excluding the impact of these items, the company's core earnings were $65.5 million in the second quarter and diluted core earnings per share were $0.68, increases of $10.8 billion and $0.09 respectively over the same quarter last year.Total assets were $17.9 billion at June 30. Our return on average assets for the second quarter was 1.28%, and our core return on average assets was $1.51%. Our efficiency ratio was 50%. Our loan balance at the end of the quarter was $13.1 billion, an increase of $1.4 billion from last quarter. Approximately $1 billion of the increase was due to the large bank merger completed in April, while $387 million of the increase was organic loan growth, primarily in our real estate portfolio. Our loan pipeline, which we define as loans approved and ready to close, was $419 million at the end of the quarter compared to $474 million at the end of the first quarter.On a consolidated basis, our concentration of construction and development loans was 105%, and our concentration of CRE loans was 333% at the end of the quarter. The increase is primarily result of the addition of the Reliance portfolio, which was heavily concentrated in CRE loans. Total deposits at June 30 were $13.5 million, an increase of $1.5 billion since last quarter. $1.2 billion of the increase was due to the addition of our Reliance customers and $322 million was from organic deposit growth. We continue to be very pleased with our growth in core deposits as we continue to emphasize relationship banking.Our net interest income for the second quarter was $150.4 million. Included in interest income was the yield accretion recognized on loans acquired of $10.2 million. Of this amount, $4.9 million or 48% was equitable credit mark related and $5.3 million, or 52% was interest mark related. Our net interest margin for the quarter was 3.92% compared to 3.85% at March 31. The Company's core net interest margin, which excludes all accretion was 3.66% for the second quarter compared to 3.67% for the previous quarter. The 26 basis point difference between GAAP and core net interest margin includes 12 basis points of credit mark accretion and 14 basis points of interest mark accretion.Our core net interest margin essentially remained flat, which is consistent with our planned balance increase in deposit costs with a similar increase in interest income. Our non-interest income for the second quarter was $39 million, an increase of approximately $1 million compared to the same period last year. As of July 1, 2018, we became subject to the interchange rate cap was established by the Durbin Amendment, resulting in a $3.1 million reduction in debit card fees for the second quarter in 2019, when compared to the same period in 2018. This decrease was mostly offset by an increase in the gain on the sale of securities of $2.8 million.Non-interest expense for the second quarter was $110.7 million. Core non-interest expense for the quarter was $97.4 million, which represented an increase of only $378,000, when compared with the second quarter of 2018. Consistent with last quarter's software and technology costs increased approximately $2.2 million over the same period in the prior year. Our next generation banking technology Initiative is progressing on schedule. Our incremental IT expenditures during the second quarter were primarily related to this initiative.As previously discussed, we expect more incremental expenses related to NGB throughout this year and into the first half of 2020. The early retirement option offered to qualified associates in the first quarter contributed to the decline in salaries and employee benefit expense during that quarter. We expect ongoing net annual savings of $4.4 million from this program. At June 30th, 2019, the allowance for loan losses for legacy loans was $63 million, with an additional $1 million allowance for acquired loans. The loan discount mark was $73.5 million for a total of $138 million of coverage.At the end of the second quarter, our non-performing assets were $87.6 million, an increase of $6.9 million from the first quarter. The increase was due to the real estate owned acquired from large bank. This balance is primarily made up of $62.2 million in non-performing loans and $25.4 million in other non-performing assets, which include $6.5 million in closed bank branches held for sale. Our annualized net charge-off's total loans were 14 basis points. The provision for loan loss was $7.1 million. Our capital position remains very strong. As of June 30, 2019, common stockholders' equity was $2.5 billion. Our book value per share was $25.57, an increase of $9.9 from last year. While our tangible book value per share was $14.90, an increase of 14.2%. The ratio of tangible common equity was $8.5 June 30.Our total risk-based capital of June 30 was $12.7, while our Tier 1 leverage ratio was 8.9%. Recently, Simmons was recognized by Forbes as one of the top banks in Tennessee and Arkansas. And was once again recognized by Arkansas business as one of the Best Place to Work in Arkansas. We're extremely proud of this type of recognition as it validates our corporate objectives of making Simmons a great place to work and providing excellent customer experience. We also completed the move to our new Little Rock corporate offices, where we're proud to be an anchor in vibrant Rivermarket area of downtown.In the near-term, we will continue to manage concentrations in our construction and commercial real estate loan portfolios. Our emphasis will be on developing deeper relationships with our customers. Our NGB technology initiative continues on track, as we prepare to introduce updated applications throughout the remainder of 2019 and into the first half of 2020. And we continue to explore strategic M&A relationships, which would enhance our coverage in our current footprint.This concludes our prepared comments. We'll now take questions from our research analyst and institutional investors. I'll ask the operator to please come back on the line and review the instructions and open the call for questions.