Civista Bancshares Inc (CIVB) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to Civista Bancshares Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded.

Now I’d like to turn the call over to Mr. Dennis Shaffer, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. This is Dennis Shaffer, President and CEO of Civista Bancshares, and I would like to thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2021 earnings call. I am joined today by Rich Dutton, SVP of the company and Chief Operating Officer of the Bank, Chuck Parcher, SVP of the Company and Chief Lending Officer of the bank and other members of our executive team.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements with respect to the future performance and financial condition of Civista Bancshares, Inc., that involves risks and uncertainties. Various factors could cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors are discussed in the company’s SEC filings, which are available on the company’s website. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. Additionally, management may refer to non-GAAP measures, which are intended to supplement, but not substitute, the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The press release available on the website contains the financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today as well as the reconciliation of the GAAP and non-GAAP measures.

We will record this call and make it available on Civista Bancshares website at www.civb.com. Again, welcome to Civista Bancshares Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. At the conclusion of my remarks, we will take any questions you may have. Let me start off by noting several significant accomplishments or transactions that occurred during the third quarter. This morning, we reported net income of $9.6 million or $0.64 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2021 and net income of $29.6 million or $1.90 per diluted share for the 9 months ending September 30, 2021.

Our earnings per share for the quarter increased 33.3% compared to the third quarter of 2020 as well as 39.7% compared to the first 9 months of 2020. The this is a direct result of our continued focus on growing and diversifying our revenue streams and the disciplined approach that we take in managing the company. Earlier this month, we announced a $0.14 quarterly dividend, which represents an annualized yield of 2.41% based on our September 30 market close of $23.23 and a dividend payout ratio of 21.88%.

We also continue to look for ways to make our balance sheet more efficient. Late in September, we began redeploying $50 million of excess liquidity from cash into investments, which we expect to result in $850,000 of additional interest income on an annualized basis. We continue to be active in our repurchasing common shares. During the quarter, we repurchased 404,620 shares. Year-to-date, we have repurchased 909,859 shares or 5.7% of the outstanding shares at December 31, 2020. Finally, last Friday, we filed a $100 million shelf offering, which was a renewal of our existing shelf that was set to expire at the end of November.

Now let’s turn our attention to our quarterly numbers. We were extremely pleased with our loan growth for the quarter. Excluding PPP loans, our loans grew by 3% or 12% on an annualized basis. The category that we saw the largest increase in was commercial real estate. We originated 3,700 loans for nearly $400 million through the SBA?s Paycheck Protection Program. At September 30, we had 772 PPP loans remaining with balances of $83.3 million.

All of our first round loans have been processed with all but 9 of the first round loans totaling $2.7 million having been forgiven. In addition, 50.2% of our round 2 loans have initiated the forgiveness process. We anticipate having approximately $20 million of PPP loans remaining at the end of the year and hope to have them all forgiven or in payout by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

We continue our focus on managing COVID-19 loan deferrals as well as asset quality as a whole. Our deferrals have continued to improve from 3.6% of total loans at December 31, 2020, to less than 1% at September 30. Due to our efforts of working with customers and the strength of our borrowers, we have not experienced any defaults attributable to the pandemic and delinquencies remaining at historically low levels.

Net interest income increased $592,000 or 2.5% over the linked quarter and increased $2.4 million or 11% year-over-year. Net interest income for the first 9 months of 2021 increased $5.9 million or 8.9% compared to 2020. Our net interest margin was 3.62% and 3.48% for the quarter and for the first 9 months of 2021, respectively. Both measures are lower than the comparable 2020 period, but higher than the linked quarter as the impact of our second quarter balance sheet restructuring contributed a full quarter of impact. As we shared in our first quarter earnings release, the increased liquidity we experienced as a result of the federal government stimulus program and the excess cash created by our tax processing program, both continue to have a negative effect on our year-to-date margin.

We continue to see decreases in our funding costs due to the lower interest rate environment. Funding costs went down by $306,000 compared to the linked quarter and $1.2 million when comparing the third quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2020 and $3 million when comparing the first 9 months of 2021 through the same period of 2020. Our yield on earning assets is comparable to the prior year quarter and increased by 5 basis points over the linked quarter as new loan rates remain stable, and the balance sheet restructuring transactions we executed in May took full effect. Our yield on earning assets for the first 9 months of 2021 declined 42 basis points compared to the same period in 2020 as interest rates began to tumble late in the first quarter of 2020.

Backing out the effect of the $1.8 million gain on the sale of our Visa B stock that occurred in the second quarter, noninterest income declined $814,000 or 11.2% in comparison to the linked quarter and increased $2.3 million or 11.4% year-over-year. The decline in tax program fees from the second to third quarter is typical, and the decline in gain on sale of mortgages is reflective of a slowdown in refinancing across our footprint. These declines were partially offset by an increase in service charges. The adjusted year-over-year increase was the result of increases in virtually every category of noninterest income, particularly gains on the sale of mortgage loans, service charges, interchange fees and wealth management fees as we continue to focus on growing our noninterest income streams.

Mortgage banking continues to be the largest driver of our noninterest income, although refinance activity slowed considerably. Third quarter gains on the sale of mortgage loans were $1.6 million, down from our linked quarter of $2.2 million as refinances began to decline and home inventories continue to be tight across our markets. For the first 9 months of 2021, we recorded gains of $6.6 million compared to $5.5 million in 2020. We sold $56.9 million of mortgage loans during the third quarter of 2021 and $204.7 million during the first 9 months of 2021. Third quarter volume was down $12.3 million from the linked quarter as demand for refinancing continued to soften. The average premium recognized on the sale of loans decreased from 3.2% for the linked quarter to 2.83% for the current quarter.

Service charge revenue was a bright spot, increasing $202,000 for the linked quarter and $280,000 for the first 9 months of 2021 compared to 2020. Interchange revenue was consistent with our linked quarter and increased $150,000 for the quarter and $663,000 for the first 9 months of 2021 as consumers seem to be maintaining the online and cashless retail buying habits that began during the economic shutdown.

Wealth management revenue continues its strong contribution to our noninterest income increasing $230,000 for the quarter and $654,000 for the first 9 months of 2021. We continue to bring in new accounts as well as benefiting from strong financial markets. The reduction in swap fees is a result of our decision to book Select 5 and 7 year fixed rate loans on our balance sheet. Given the current rate environment, we have elected to book the higher fixed rate loan that we might otherwise have swapped to a lower variable rate loan.

Adjusting for the $3.8 million Federal Home Loan bank prepayment penalty we incurred in the second quarter, noninterest expense for the linked quarter would have increased $704,000 or 3.7% and $3.9 million or 7.3% year-over-year. The year-over-year increase is primarily attributable to a $2.5 million increase in compensation expense. The largest components of which were a $832,000 increase due to normal pay raises, a $984,000 increase in commissions paid to mortgage originators and a $300,000 increase in health insurance claims. Our efficiency ratio for the quarter was 62.2% compared to our adjusted ratios of 59.5% for the linked quarter and 59.9% year-over-year.

Turning our focus to the balance sheet. Year-to-date, our total loans declined by $52.7 million, which includes $134 million reduction in PPP loans. Excluding PPP loans, our loan portfolio would have grown by $81.3 million or 5.9% annually. Third quarter growth was consistent with that of our second quarter at $55.3 million or 12% annualized. Demand for commercial real estate loans across our footprint continued. Real estate construction loan demand continued the trend that started during the second quarter.

We are encouraged by the loans booked during the second and third quarters as well as the strong demand across our footprint and undrawn construction lines totaling $128 million, which are near an all-time high. While we continue to battle loan payoffs on completed projects, reduced outstandings on operating lines of credit and increased liquidity of our customers, we continue to expect that we will grow our loan portfolio at a mid- single-digit rate for 2021.

On the funding side, we experienced growth in every category, except time deposits, with total deposits increasing $245.4 million or 11.2% since the beginning of the year. Noninterest-bearing demand accounts, which made up 34.2% of our total deposits at September 30, grew by $111.7 million compared to December 31, 2020. While balances related to our income tax processing program made up $31.5 million of the increase, $48.9 million of the growth came from noninterest-bearing business accounts and $28.5 million from public entities. We also experienced a $92.7 million increase in our interest-bearing demand accounts, driven by a $52.1 million increase in public fund accounts.

During the pandemic, we automatically downgraded commercial loans that requested concessions beyond the initial 90-day modification period. Our total criticized loan portfolio, which includes all classified and substandard loans, declined from $148.1 million at December 31, 2020, to $106.1 million at September 30, 2021. The segment with the largest number of criticized loans is hotels and lodging, totaling $61.4 million. Many of these operators have experienced increased occupancy from leisure travel during the third quarter of 2021. We anticipate further reduction in our criticized portfolio as hotel revenues stabilize.

While there are still uncertainties associated with the economy, we continue to see improvement in both the economy and our customers? financial positions. In addition, year-to-date, we have realized $710,000 in net recoveries. As a result, it was not necessary to record a provision expense during the quarter. The ratio of our allowance for loan losses to loans increased from 1.22% at year-end 2020 to 1.33%. Exclusive of the PPP loans, this ratio would have been 1.38%. Our allowance for loan losses to nonperforming loans also increased to 503.5% at the end of the quarter from 343.05% at the end of 2020. We ended the quarter with a tangible common equity ratio of 9.28% compared to 9.98% at December 31, 2020. The extra $67.5 million of liquidity related to our income tax refund processing business at quarter end, combined with the $83.3 million in PPP loans had the effect of reducing our tangible common equity ratio by approximately 52 basis points.

We continue to create capital through earnings. Our overall goal is to have adequate capital to support our growth; both organically and through acquisitions. Two important parts of our capital management strategy are the payment of dividends and share repurchases. As previously stated, we recently announced our fourth quarter dividend of $0.14 per share. We also remain active in repurchasing our shares. Even with the recent increase in our stock price, we continue to believe our stock is of value. During the quarter, we purchased 404,620 shares of our stock for $9.2 million at an average price of $22.74 per share. Year-to-date, we have repurchased 909,859 shares or 5.7% of our shares that were outstanding at December 31, 2020. We have approximately $11 million authorized to be repurchased under the current repurchase program.

In summary, we are pleased with another quarter of solid earnings, continued loan growth, net interest margin expansion and improved credit quality. While the economy has opened up during the first 9 months of 2021, labor shortages and supply chain issues are affecting many of our customers. In spite of these challenges, we remain optimistic. Our loan pipelines are solid. We expect that most of the remaining PPP Phase II loans will be forgiven during the balance of 2021. We will continue leveraging our new digital banking platform and plan to roll out online account opening during the fourth quarter, all of which will allow us to provide a better customer experience. Thank you for your attention this afternoon.

And now we’ll be happy to address any questions you may have.

(Operator Instructions) First question comes from Terry McEvoy, Stephens.

First question is on the expenses, the software and maintenance expenses were up about $300,000 year-over-year. And I know you mentioned the new digital banking platform. So I guess my question is, is that a good run rate to use going forward? I know you mentioned you’re going to roll out the online account opening next quarter and maybe spend some time, if you could, just talking about how the new digital banking platform is how your customers are using it and some early feedback.

Okay. Terry, this is Rich. We did have about $200,000 worth of kind of onetime nonrecurring expenses related to that that we did expense in the quarter. So the run rate, and I think I told you last quarter, will be about $200,000 a quarter, and that’s just about where we expect it to be going forward. But I think if you’re looking at a run rate for expenses for Q4 and Q1 of next year, $19.2 million is probably a good number.

And then on the online account opening and stuff, Terry, we’ll initially roll that out. It should roll out here in the fourth quarter. But we’ll initially roll that out and we’ll market it to existing customers within kind of our footprint in the neighboring bordering states and then we’ll further expand upon that once we see some patterns and analyze some of the usage and stuff like that. But the initial rollout will be marketed and targeted towards existing customers to begin with so that we can analyze that data.

Yes. And the only thing I’d add to is that we don’t anticipate any additional expenses attributable to that, the online account opening.

Great. And then maybe as a follow-up, maybe just talk about loan and just market competition for commercial and commercial real estate loans.

Yes. Terry, it’s Chuck. I’d love to say that it’s softening, but it’s not the case. As you know, we’ve seen a little pickup in the treasury, but we have not seen the ability to pass that movement upward to our customers as far as the loan rates yet. We’re hoping that we’ll see that here going forward, but that has not been the case. It’s been very competitive. We’ve had some really nice growth across both of our metro -- all of our metro markets actually and Columbus and Cleveland are ultra-competitive right now.

Next question is from Nick Cucharale of Piper Sandler.

Just on the mortgage side, what’s the breakdown in purchase versus refinance in the quarter?

I’ve got September in front of me -- let me see if I can figure the quarter out. September was 64% purchase, 36% refi. And we’ve seen that continue to rotate. If I look across the numbers here, Terry, it’s pretty much -- it’s pretty close to that, I mean, for the quarter as well. I can get you an exact number after the fact, but I know last month, it was 64, 36, because we’ve been watching it pretty close.

Okay. I appreciate the commentary with respect to the buyback and the increased dividend recently. Can you talk about another prong of your capital allocation strategy, just your appetite for M&A and the landscape within your footprint?

Sure, Nick. We continue to have a number of ongoing talks with many of the smaller banks really across our footprint. I think discussions are probably a little bit more active than they probably -- than normal. And there probably are a few more of those discussions going on. Our view really hasn’t changed much. We would like to do a deal. We believe that getting a little larger, makes us a little bit more efficient. We continue to be, I think, opportunistic. But for us, it’s got to be the right deal, both in terms of creating long-term shareholder value, and it needs to culturally align for both the buyer and the seller because those are the deals that are most successful. But I would say that the discussions are probably a little bit more active than they have been in the past.

Quick. While you’re still there. I mean, Nick. It was 69% purchase for the quarter.

The next question is from Michael Perito of KBW.

A few questions. One, just on the size of the balance sheet [portfolio] the security portfolio, [this is] in the prepared remarks, but it’s likely to kind of say pretty flat here $5 million. Hopefully, the excess cash works pretty well [into the] mid-single digits on loan growth expectation over the next handful of quarters? Is that generally how you guys are looking at the total [in that space]?

I would say, yes. Yes, that’s where we want it to go, into loan growth for sure. And again, we did that transaction that kind of bleed over the end of the quarter. I think we had $50 million earmarked to be invested and, I think, $43 million of it got invested by September 30. I think the rest of it has been since. But yes, I think, again, I think things have kind of stabilized. And certainly, whenever excess liquidity or any liquidity, we’d love to have to borrow money to make that, but that’s where the balance will go.

Helpful. And then just on the expenses, you think you said $19.2 million was a better kind of starting point to grow off of for the next couple of quarters. And just curious, I mean, as we look at overall core expenses of, I think, like 77, on pace to do about maybe $77 million, $77.5 million. I mean, how should we think about kind of year-on-year growth? I mean, maybe a little too early in the budgeting process to ask, but there’s a lot of labor pressures, kind of an interesting market out there right now. I mean, is it -- do you think putting you up in the kind of $79.5 million, $80 million full-year range for next year is too heavy? Or do you think that there’s enough kind of headwinds out there where it pays to add a few percent growth in there also that run rate.

So you’re right. We’re early in the budgeting process. But I think if you grew expenses in the 2% to 4% range just across the board, that’s kind of the way we’re looking at it, again, very, very preliminarily. You alluded to interesting on the wages. I don’t know if that’s the adjective we would use. But yes, it’s out there for sure.

Yes. I mean, I think the wage inflation is real. I mean, in September, we did pass on $1.00 an hour increase to all of our hourly, nonexempt employees. In the end, it just means that the cost eventually either gets passed on to the consumers. So the banks have to figure out a way to operate more efficiently. And we know that consumer and business behaviors are changing and more customers are banking digitally. So that’s why we invested the dollars we did in upgrading our mobile app for consumers and our treasury management platform for our business customers. And it’s also why we migrated to this online account opening feature. That’s a big step forward for us. So, to combat that inflation, I think banks are just going to have to figure out how to kind of operate more efficiently in some of these areas. And that’s what we’ll be looking to address and tackle.

Okay. Helpful. And then just lastly, on the NIM, I think you, Rich or Dennis, I think you might have said there’s like $850,000 of interest income to come in from some of the liquidity deployment. But I think if you back out the PPP and the accretion, the core NIM was about 3.26, up 4 bps quarter-on-quarter. And I just -- I mean, it seems like with the loan growth and the actions you took over the course of the quarter actually continue to move higher. I guess my broader question is, with the long end where it is and no help on short-term rates. Do you guys have any thoughts about where that core NIM could trend so near-term, what the loan yield pressures you’re seeing? And just any insights there would be a helpful starting point.

And I think you’re right. I mean if it goes up or down, it’s going to be basis points. I mean, I think we’ve done and continue to monitor the excess liquidity to see if there’s opportunities there, but really, the things that we put in place we would expect to push the margin up, again, basis points. I think we said last quarter, 12 basis points or 17 basis points over a 12-month period.

17.

And that’s kind of played out what we wanted it to. I think Chuck and his team are doing the best they can to hold the line. And I think we’re putting on assets at a rate pretty comparable to what we did in the prior quarter. So there’s less pressure there. But absent any movement in interest rates, larger scale, I think where we are is where we’ll be possible that we could trend that, but it would be, again, basis points.

And when you make all the adjustments, Mike, I think for the year, it’s been basis points contraction for us as opposed to some of the our competitors that I’ve looked at, and they’ve had that or more in a quarter. So I think our adjustments have been -- I mean, our -- we’ve been doing a pretty good job of holding the line, reducing our interest expense and holding a line on our loan pricing.

(Operator Instructions) Your next question is from Russell Gunther, D.A. Davidson.

I wanted to talk about the growth outlook. So really strong result over the last couple of quarters, understand the guide for the year, mid-single digits and implies kind of a like amount in the fourth quarter. But as you look out into 2022, I mean, is a high single-digit pace achievable for you guys? Or what would cause you or the growth results to take a step back sustainably going forward from where you’ve been running the past couple of quarters.

Yes. I mean, I think that mid -- we’ve kind of always been that mid- to high level single-digit growth shot, Russell. I think that’s probably a pretty good forecast for us. I mean, a lot of it depends on how fast some of our projects get completed and how fast they go to the perm market. We’ve seen a little bit more aggression out of the perm market lately, taking those projects off our balance sheet a little quicker than they have in the past. That might limit us a little bit from the growth cycle, keeping them on the book as long. But I think you’re probably in the right thought process, mid- to high single digit price, probably somewhere in the center of that, to be honest with you.

Okay. And then is that likely to remain commercial weighted? Or is there any increased appetite to portfolio single-family resi? I know you mentioned the securities book not really expected to build, but just portfolio-ing single-family at all incrementally more attractive here.

It’s interesting. The one thing that might help us a little bit is maybe we might not run off as much single family. I think this year, last I looked, I think were down $18 million from the beginning of the year with single family, as we’ve taken some of our on-balance sheet single-family product and moved it into sales and sold in the market. So maybe we’ll get a little bit more [pickup] growth just by not doing as much of that as the refinance boom stuff.

Yes, that’s kind of somewhat reflective with our swap strategy as well. I mean, we just have not taken -- we’d rather get the yield right now as opposed to really book those low interest yield deals, they’re single-family deals. So it is going to almost entirely be that growth going to come from that commercial book.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. Now I’d like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Dennis Shaffer for closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Well, in closing, I just want to thank everyone for listening, and thank those that participated on the call. Again, we are pleased with our third quarter, and we look forward to talking to you guys again in a few months to share our year-end results. So thank you for your time today.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.