Peter B. Bartholow
Analyst · Raymond James
Thank you, George, very much. We'll begin the discussion of the financial review on Slides 4 and 5. We did have an excellent quarter in terms of growth and in core operating results. In terms of net income and EPS, we did see a decrease from Q1 of this year and Q2 of last year entirely related to the following elements: The increased provision that George mentioned required by a record quarterly growth was $0.08 a share; the charge related to the CEO succession plan announced in June was $0.12 a share, we'll have more comments on this in a moment; the increase in incentive and 123R expense related to increased profitability of achieving certain performance targets for 2013 and 2014, coupled with a higher stock price. And all of these plans we view as consistent with shareholder interest, and are variable to the performance of the company and our shareholders' interest. We had the first full quarter of impact of the preferred dividend of $0.06 a share. Assuming no growth from the -- in the provision for loan loss, and before the preferred dividend, we consider normalized operating EPS at $0.81. In terms of operating leverage, core earnings power and net interest margin, again, we had strong results and net revenue consistent with Q2 seasonal strength, 3% increase from the first quarter, 11% from the prior year. As George mentioned, we had exceptional growth in held for investment loan balances. Average growth of 5% from the first quarter, growth of 20% consistent with prior quarter results against the count with the prior year. The strength was building in the last half of the quarter and really provides a very strong foundation for Q3 operating results. Strong growth in loan produced a reduction in Net Interest Margin by 8 basis points to 4.19%. We had broad-based LHI growth with very favorable spreads, with yields down only slightly, and that accounted for 4 basis points of the NIM reduction. Growth and a 15 basis point reduction in held for sale yields directly resulting from national market conditions produced half of the NIM reduction. And the yields are now expected to increase in the last half of 2013 from what we consider the load we experienced in Q2. Again, the improved funding profile that reduced cost from growth in DDA in total deposits was very important to the quarter and will be much more so as we see finally an increase in rates. The increased provision for loan losses, as we mentioned, was directly related to record quarterly growth of $590 million in loans held for investment. It's a record by over $100 million in a single quarter. Provision is consistent with the application of our methodology and requires the application of the allowance in the quarters when the loans are booked. And it results in a cost. In this case, it represents more than 4 months of spread income at a time when the exposure to loss is actually the least it will ever be. This is absolutely not a reflection of the change in portfolio characteristics, lending philosophies or exposures of any type. The $9.9 million charge in noninterest income, totaling $0.15 a share, is comprised of $7.7 million or $0.12 a share related to the organizational change. $2.2 million, I mentioned, almost $0.04 a share, related to achieving the performance standards. As I mentioned earlier, these costs are variable and based on the company's operating performance and stock price. So they are directly aligned with the shareholders' interest. I'd like to make several important points about the charge for the retirement benefit. Texas Capital, I think as most know, does not have a retirement plan or any other deferred compensation program for its executives, which might have been expensed over many years or even decades. So the retirement of the CEO sets up a need for a one-off determination where cost incurred is related both to the performance of the company during the CEO's tenure and to future performance, because the substantial majority of the total benefit is depended on both performance of the stock price and performance of the company on standards yet to be defined. It's more directly aligned, as I mentioned, with shareholder interest and other -- than any other type of retirement plan by which senior executives might be eligible. The company has also chosen the approach which will reduce the ongoing cost by taking the full estimated cost in the quarter when the succession plan was implemented. Cost incurred does reflect an estimate and can go up or down depending on the company's performance and any changes in the stock price. The remainder in the increase in noninterest expense from Q1 levels and consensus was directly related to the success we've experienced in recruiting, buildout and new product expansion that Keith will discuss. In terms of capital position, we still believe the growth in common equity in 2013 will exceed the growth in total loans. Our position, as you all know, was strengthened at the very end of Q2 -- excuse me, Q1, prior to Q2, as a preferred stock offering, resulting, as I mentioned earlier, in $0.06 per share EPS available to common stockholders. As we've commented many times, deferred offering was done to protect the mortgage finance business from any change in risk weight for loans held for sale. And I'll comment that if the company does not prevail, we would expect to modify the program to return at least a meaningful portion of the held-for-sale portfolio to lower-risk weight category. In terms of loan growth, again, we experienced record growth, and it occurred across a number of lines of business and regions, reaching $7.2 billion average for the quarter, and with the quarter end balance at $7.5 billion or 5% above the quarterly average. And as expected, the growth in held-for-investment loans is compensating for the slower growth in held-for-sale portfolio. The average balances for held-for-sale increased and demonstrated continued improvement in market share in this line of business over the past several years. On average, we had $2.76 billion in this business before the participation sold of $350 million. And consistent with our objectives, the balance remained above the $2.3 billion average for Q1 2013 and for the full year of 2012. As stated earlier, our approach is designed to build and maintain this business by adding customers and expanding penetration within the current base. Participation balances were flat with Q1, again, on average, were $350 million. And in that regard, as planned, we provided notice of termination to participants, remitting a return of these balances to mitigate any market weakness in the mortgage business. But that change will really affect us in Q4 with improved balances. I'll speak more about the mortgage finance earnings contribution in a moment. For Q2, we had continued improvement in the funding profile with a reduction in cost of total funding of earning assets. The change in funding mix has obviously been a very important with a linked quarter growth of 15% in average balances. So very strong and 56% year-over-year. Again, this reflects the success of treasury management focus throughout the business, and more particularly, the growth of the deposit base in our mortgage finance business. In terms of credit quality and cost, the trend remains very positive. Before the impact of growth on the provision, total credit cost increased by only $300,000 comprised solely of ORE valuation charge compared to the first quarter. Increase of $5 million or $0.08 a share, again, was related to the $500 million -- $590 million growth in held for investment. We had 11% reduction in nonperforming assets with larger percentage reductions in restructured, past due and potential problem loans. For the first half, we had net charge-offs of 10 basis points, and Keith will cover credit quality and cost in more detail later in the call. Slide 6 is dedicated to all the people that have been guessing about the profit contribution for the mortgage industry. Some guesses had been better than others, but we've designed, we've determined that we will try to provide some clarity around that business. This is a highly profitable, sustainable business with an extremely favorable earning asset and funding profile. Strong position nationally that we have gained has given us focus on very large, regional and privately owned mortgage companies. It's really consistent with our middle-market business model for the rest of the bank. The company has consistently increased market share in this business since the industry collapsed in 2007. The pace of growth has obviously declined but was building throughout the second quarter, the June average balance of $2.65 billion. The assets generated in this business were characterized by exceptional yield, asset quality and low-risk profile. The company is now benefiting from a focus on purchase money mortgage originators that began in 2012. This is, in fact, a near-perfect asset class in a low rate environment with very minimal interest rate risk. We've had a reduction in yield and related net interest margin since 2010, tracking the national mortgage rates. The yields were almost 5% in the first quarter of 2010, and now, just 3.74%. And consider the impact of that reduction on a portfolio that has obviously been overcome with very substantial growth. Portfolio is now, we believe, positioned to produce higher yields beginning in the third quarter of this year. We've had excellent results from growth in operating leverage. Again, we managed a $2.75 billion business and [indiscernible] $3.1 billion at the end of Q2. The growth from Q1 was consistent with expectations, and again, was ahead of the average in 2012. I'll comment further that funding was provided by just under about $1.2 billion in deposits, $1 billion -- more than $1 billion of which is DDA, so the balance of the portfolio is funded with borrowed funds. Held for sale balances were just under 26% year-to-date of total loans, declining from 29% from the peak in the fourth quarter of 2012, really due to the growth in held for investment and seasonal weakness in the industry that began in the first quarter of this year. Pretax, pre-provision, PTPP, contribution from mortgage finance was just under 27% year-to-date total contribution of all business units, declined slightly in Q2 to just under 26% due to the yield contraction and to the growth in the held-for-investment portfolio. The range since the ramp-up that began in the last half of 2011 has been approximately 25% to a maximum of 29%. Obviously, the contribution varies between quarters because of change in national mortgage rates, volumes by customer type, seasonal conditions and the growth in this portfolio relative to loans held for investment. Returns on allocated equity and invested capital were comparable to all of our other lines of business taken as a whole. We have lower spreads here and NIM compared to other businesses, but those are offset with volume-driven fees and the fact that there are no credit costs. The cost of the approach we used in this business are higher than others with which we're familiar, but we believe that the risks are also mitigated. The loan purchase approach requires more dedicated operations and is more staff-intensive. It requires a major commitment to systems. And as you've heard from us, it provides -- requires us to maintain insurance and fraud protection. We have excellent operating leverage in this business when the volumes are high. And with strategies now in place, we believe that volumes will remain high for the balance of 2013, and we expect higher yields on the portfolio for the last half of the year. We commented that at 100% risk weight, the company notionally allocates capital with an after-tax cost of just under 5%. And earnings with that, return on invested capital approaching 25% after tax on contribution basis. And using kind of a standard, for example, 8% tangible common equity ratio, based on the average balances, the return on this business is very consistent with the returns in the rest of our banking business. I think it's obvious that the change in the risk weight we experienced at the end of the first quarter did not change our company's commitment to this business. We believe our position is compelling with respect to this asset class, in contrast to the ownership of securities in terms of earnings profile, deposits generated and long-term risk characteristics. I think it's important to note in this context, the recent spate of very substantial reductions in other comprehensive income associated with large securities portfolios that occurred with only a very minor change and long-term interest rates. I'll comment further that the determination on the risk weight issue is still pending. We strongly believe that the character of the assets we own warrants a low risk weight. As I mentioned, we have actual legal ownership, not a secured financing arrangement. We own the assets for the 15 least risky days in the long life of mortgage loans, yet we are the only party to 100% risk weight in contrast to the originator, aggregator and permanent investor in this asset class. Oddly, if the assets don't sell for any reason, then they return to a 50% or 20% risk weight. On a legal contractual business and economic basis and reality, all of those argue against the 100% risk weight. Obviously, it'll be beneficial if we can return to an average of approximately 40% rate -- risk weight, that really will be mostly in terms of freeing up regulatory capital, which can be deployed in other lines of business. On Slide 7, we do a review of quarterly income trends. Very strong growth in net income compared to the industry. Performance, obviously driven by the benefit of our business model with the growth and the ability to remain high NIM due to the balance sheet composition. Except for the record -- the impact of record growth, the provisioning credit costs are all well contained. And normalized for the impact of the charge that we've already discussed, EPS before dividend of $0.81, ROA of 1.30%, ROE of 14.8% and efficiency ratio of 52%. The growth in the core noninterest income, as I mentioned, directly related to business growth and was the fact -- the principal factor in the increase in the normalized efficiency ratio to 52% from 48% or 49%. With high ROE, the internal capital generation rate is still expected to exceed the growth rate for total loans, again, due to the reduced growth expected for held for sale balances in 2013. Slide 8, for the average balances yield and rates. The loan growth and the funding profile were drivers of the high NIM and the growth in net interest income. We will have -- continue to have a highly asset sensitive balance sheet, which is obviously suboptimal in times of exceptionally low rates. Loan growth has had a major impact in maintaining the yields and spreads on earning assets, again, in contrast to what the industry has experienced. Loan yields have held up very well. The balance subject to floors has remained very steady in dollar terms for an extended period, with a declining percent of the total due solely to held for investment growth. We expect an increase in held for sale yields, as I've mentioned, from the ramp up in rates since early May. We have a lag impact on yields for 30 day -- 30- to 60-day period for loan commitment to funding. Growth in DDA, total funding, total deposits and the funding mix improvement obviously are important in maintaining strong NIM. On Slide 9, quarterly average balances. As indicated in the F4 [ph] call, we were going to experience strong held for investment growth in the second quarter, which we certainly realized. The DDA and total deposit growth was especially strong, as I mentioned, and based on held for investment growth of 9% linked quarter, and this is on Slide 10, actually, linked quarter balance of 9% and 20% since 1 year ago. We're obviously continuing to gain market share. We had a high held for sale balance at the end of Q2. We have expansion of the market share and the reduction in refinancing activity. And the participation program is clearly having the desired impact and is expected to be beneficial in the future. Again, very solid growth in deposits and especially DDA. Now, I'd like to ask Keith to touch on business.