Bob Young
Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead
Thanks Todd, and good afternoon to all of you. We reported strong year-over-year growth in both pretax and after tax earnings, as Todd mentioned, and we displayed solid expense management, both quarter-over-quarter as well as year-over-year. For the three months ending March 31, 2018, we reported net income of $33.5 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.76 as compared to $25.9 million and $0.59 respectively in the prior year period. When excluding merger-related expenses, net income would have increased 28.7% to $33.7 million and earnings per diluted share would have increased 26.7% to $0.76. For the first quarter, total returns on average assets and average tangible equity were 1.37% and 17.2% respectively. And just as a reminder, our first-quarter results exclude the impact of the First Sentry acquisition since it closed after the end of the quarter on April 5th. Turning to the balance sheet. Total assets as of March 31, 2018 grew to $10.2 billion year-over-year, driven by an increase in the securities portfolio as we refocused on growing total earning assets since we are crossing the $10 billion asset threshold with our acquisition of First Sentry. Total portfolio loans of $6.3 billion were flat compared to the prior year as we continued our efforts to prudently manage our loan portfolios to encourage growth in our focus categories without sacrificing credit standards. During the past 12 months, total commercial loans increased 1.8% and home equity loans rose 3%. However, they were offset by the targeted reductions in the consumer portfolio as we reduced its risk profile, as well as increased secondary market loan sales as a percentage of residential mortgage loans originated, which caused the reduction in the amount of one to four family mortgage loans held on our balance sheet. While seasonal factors negatively impacted the residential mortgage market nationwide, including WesBanco, our year-over-year decline of 2% in originations compares favorably to the 10% decline experienced nationally. Despite this slight decrease in originations, the percentage of mortgages sold in the secondary market during the first quarter increased to approximately 57% compared to 44% last year. Total deposits, excluding CDs, increased 5.1% year-over-year due to strong growth in interest-bearing and non-interest bearing demand deposits, which reflect the strength of deposit gathering through our new and legacy markets. We’ll turn now to net interest income and margin. The net interest margin continues to reflect the benefit from the increases in the Federal Reserve board's target federal funds rate over the past year, partially offset by higher funding costs as well as a flattening of the yield curve. As was noted last quarter, the first quarter's margin of 3.38% reflects a 6 basis point reduction related to the lower tax equivalent fee of the state and local municipal tax-exempt securities resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Excluding this reduction as well as purchase accounting increasing in both periods, the core net interest margin improved 4 basis points year-over-year. The increase in the cost of interest bearing liabilities is primarily due to higher rates for interest-bearing public funds, as well as certain federal home loan bank and other borrowings. We continue to believe that our core deposit funding advantage is helping to contain our overall deposit funding cost. When including the growth in non-interest bearing deposits, our total funding costs have only increased 10 basis points year-over-year despite 425 basis point federal funds rate increases since March of '17. That said, we still expect deposit base to increase during the remainder of 2018 as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates. Now, a discussion of non-interest income. For the quarter ended March 31, 2018, non-interest income increased 4.8% from the prior year to $24 million, primarily driven by higher bank owned life insurance, trust fees and electronic banking fees, which more than offset lower mortgage banking income and other income. The higher bank owned life insurance revenue was due to higher debt benefits received during the period. Trust fees, which increased 5.9% year-over-year due to equity market improvements and organic growth and trust assets, is seasonally higher during the first quarter as compared to the other quarters, primarily due to increased tax preparation fees. While the volume of residential mortgage originations sold in the secondary market increased 26% year-over-year, reported mortgage banking income declined $400,000 due to $500,000 reversal in the mark-to-market on mortgage loans held for sale and commitments that benefited the first quarter of 2017. Excluding last year's benefit, mortgage banking income would have increased 6.8% year-over-year. Lastly, other income increased $900,000 due to income in the prior year period from certain joint ventures that were inherited from a prior acquisition required to be dissolved, as well as lower commercial customer loan swap income, which vary quarter-to-quarter depending upon eligible loans and customer demand. Let's turn to operating expenses now. Total operating expenses were well-controlled during the first quarter of 2018 as strong discretionary expense management continues to be demonstrated with most categories decreased both year-over-year as well as sequentially. Excluding merger-related expenses in both years, non-interest expense during the first quarter of 2018 increased $400,000 or 0.8% compared to the prior year period. The slight increase in the prior year quarter is primarily due to higher salaries and wages from normal compensation adjustments implemented in mid 2017, as well as the reclassification from employee benefits of about $700,000 related to the service cost component of the pension plan due to a new accounting standard that was adopted January 1st. Let's talk about credit quality and capital. Overall, our credit quality and capital ratios continue to be strong and reflective of our legacy of credit and risk management. We continue to demonstrate strength across key credit quality measures as these measures declined to the lowest levels in more than five quarters. Further reflecting the consistent high quality of the loan portfolio, the provision for credit losses decreased from $2.7 million in the first quarter of 2017 to $2.2 million in the current quarter. It is important to mention that our credit quality measures have been at or near historic lows over the last several periods. And as such, certain changes from quarter-to-quarter might vary in comparison to one another. But given these low historic levels, they would not necessarily suggest a material change in the direction of overall credit quality. Before opening the call for your questions, I would like to provide some current thoughts on our outlook for 2018. It is important to remember that the yield curve continues to be pressured with a two year to 10 year treasury spread around 50 basis points at quarter-end and slightly lower than that as we speak today. Lower spreads generally result in lower margins for the industry. And despite our general asset sensitivity, we are not immune from such factors. We currently do not anticipate much overall change in our net interest margin during 2018, considering expected lower purchase accounting accretion and higher anticipated deposit betas from a potential two or three additional rate increases offset by loan re-pricing. Asset mix changes might result in a slight decrease in net interest margin from higher securities levels. We will continue to focus on expense trends to ensure positive operating leverage, while positioning the Company for the long term growth. We are planning our normal mid-year merit increases and expect marketing expense to be relatively consistent with the overall level during 2017, but spread somewhat more evenly throughout this year than during 2017. Regarding the recent closing of the merger with First Sentry, we are planning the data processing and brand conversion related to this. We still expect cost savings of approximately 38% with approximately 75% phased-in during the last half of 2018 and the remainder attained during 2019. And just as a reminder, we anticipate a substantial portion of the merger related cost to be incurred during the second quarter. We also currently anticipate our effective full year tax rate to be approximately 18% subject to changes in certain taxable income strategies that maybe implemented in future periods, including the potential benefit from the new markets tax credits we were just awarded. In addition, we continue to anticipate that overtime some portion of the benefit from the recent federal tax reform may result in lower than normal loan yields and higher deposit costs as such benefits are completed away by our industry. We are now ready to take your questions. Operator, would you please review the instructions?