Earnings Labs

FB Financial Corporation (FBK)

Q2 2018 Earnings Call· Wed, Jul 25, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to FB Financial Corporation’s Second Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. Hosting the call today from FB Financial is Chris Holmes, President and Chief Executive Officer. He is joined by James Gordon, Chief Financial Officer and Wib Evans, President of FB Ventures who will also be available during the question-and-answer session. Please note FB Financial’s earnings release, supplemental financial information and this morning’s presentation are available on the Investor Relations page of the company’s website at www.firstbankonline.com. Today’s call is being recorded and will be available for replay on FB Financial’s website for the next 90 days. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. The call will be open for questions after the presentation. During this presentation, FB Financial may make comments which constitute forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties and other facts that may cause actual results and performances or achievements of FB Financial to differ materially from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Many of such factors are beyond FB Financial’s ability to control or predict and listeners are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. A more detailed description of these and other risks is contained in FB Financial’s 10-K filed with the SEC. FB Financial disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this presentation whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, these remarks may include certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. A presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is available on FB Financial’s website at www.firstbankonline.com. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Chris Holmes, FB Financial’s President and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Chris Holmes

President

Thank you very much, Carla and good morning. Thank you all for joining us on this call to review our results for the second quarter of 2018. We appreciate your interest in FB Financial. On today’s call, I will review the highlights of our second quarter and then I am going to turn the call over to James Gordon, our Chief Financial Officer, who will provide additional commentary on our financial results and that will be followed by your questions. We are pleased with our results for the quarter, but even more energized by our long-term outlook and the consistency of our team in executing our plan quarter after quarter and year after year. Our team was able to balance strong growth in revenue, loans and deposits, while delivering peer-leading margins and controlling expenses. We grew our HFI loans by 21% annualized from the first quarter and our customer deposits by 17%. The growth came with a 9 basis point increase in our contractual loan yield for the quarter and only a 7 basis point increase in our deposit cost. This led to another net interest margin increase to 4.81%. Adjusting out the benefit of accretion and non-accrual interest collections which is how we measure ourselves internally, our adjusted NIM was 4.61%. With this growth in balances and margins, our adjusted return on average assets climbed to 1.91% and our return on tangible common equity to 19.6%. We are very proud of these numbers and we believe that they show just how exceptional our bank can be. There are few other things I want to highlight. Next week, we celebrate the 1 year anniversary of closing the Clayton Bank’s merger. When we announced that transaction back in February of 2017, we laid out all the customary financial metrics for our…

James Gordon

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Chris and good morning everyone. First, I want to recap our exciting operating results for this quarter as highlighted on Slide 3. Our adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.72 on adjusted net income of $22.7 million, delivering an outstanding adjusted return on average assets of 1.91% and an adjusted return on tangible common equity of 19.6%. Our year-over-year performance was driven by organic growth, the Clayton Bank’s merger and the benefit from the enacted tax reform allowing net income to almost double. Slide 4 illustrates the underlying fundamental trends of the company’s profitability and demonstrates the consistent performance that we are delivering. Our adjusted return on average assets has risen to 1.85% for the first half of the year as we continue to achieve strong and consistent growth and profitability. This profitability improvement has been driven by a balanced loan growth, a strong margin supported by our low-cost customer deposit base, stable non-interest income, expense control and sound credit quality. Slide 5 presents the fundamental elements of our strong net interest margin, in particular, our healthy loan yields, fees and low cost core deposit base. Our net interest margin reflects the collective efforts of our team to deliver exceptional service and value to our customers for whom we serve as trusted advisors everyday. As you can see, our net interest margin again was benefited by about 20 basis points of accretion and nonaccrual interest collections. Our base NIM was above our long-term range, which we are now increasing to be in a range of 4.25% to 4.50% to reflect our current expectations. We expect to settle back into that range in the coming quarters as deposit costs pick up due to the current competitive environment in a rising-rate environment also with improving loan yields also benefiting from the…

Chris Holmes

Operator

Thank you, James. We had an outstanding second quarter, continuing to deliver balanced growth and profitability. Our strong performance exceeded our growth and profitability targets and was diversified across our businesses and our markets highlighting the strength of our franchise in Tennessee, Northern Georgia and Alabama. We appreciate your interest in investment in FB Financial and look forward to updating you next quarter on our expectations of continued growth. Operator, that completes my remarks for this morning’s call and we would now like to open the call up for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. [Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from Catherine Mealor from KBW. Please go ahead, madam.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead, madam

Thanks. Good morning and great quarter.

Chris Holmes

Operator

Thanks, Catherine. Good morning.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead, madam

Good morning. So, my first question is just on the growth, because the end-of-period growth was obviously fantastic this quarter. Can you just give a little bit more color of what drove it? It seems like it’s really coming more in the Nashville markets and seemed to be a little bit concentrated in the C&I and construction loan portfolios, so just any color about that growth and are there any larger balances within that that also really drove the growth this quarter? Thanks.

Chris Holmes

Operator

Yes, Catherine. You did note that more growth was towards the end of the quarter, even in one case, on the last day of the quarter and it was driven so actually driven across the geography and across loan types. A portion of it, we had big contributions and one of the things I would say that was really, continues to be exciting for us is Nashville has been – Nashville’s economy has been great for a number of years and Nashville has pretty much pulled the train. It’s been the engine that’s pulled the train for us in growth. And it continues to perform really well and the economy continued to perform really well and it continues to pretty much hit on all the cylinders, but we had really good contributions from other markets as well. We had a really big contribution from – and it was a larger transaction from our Memphis market. We also had one from our Chattanooga market both larger transactions. So to answer your question, we did have a couple of larger transactions for us in there and large for us in terms of balance that would be something in the north of $20 million, but we don’t do much at all that gets above $30 million, so it would be in that range. And so we had a couple of those during the quarter. And so it’s spread around – and its spread around geographically. So, again those are good signs for us. We are at that size – and I will say this on growth, because we like to perform consistently in that – in a double-digit loan growth and we want to be over 10%. We said we think we can continue to do that. Our size, we are fully capable if we really like the transaction of doing a $30 million transaction and that really helps our growth numbers, but that is still way, way short of our legal lending limit. We feel like doing that. We are still keeping a good diversification in avoiding too much concentration on any one credit. So that did help in the quarter.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead, madam

Okay, that’s helpful. Thank you. And then want clarity on the mortgage guidance, so does the guidance for the back half of the year include any either positive or negative swing in the fair value of the locked pipeline kind of what we saw this quarter or is that – or was that what is driving kind of the lower I guess the additional guide down in the annual mortgage guide this year? Thanks.

Chris Holmes

Operator

Well, Catherine, we really don’t estimate the swing in the fair value of the pipeline. The income has driven up really the combined on the interest rate lock commitments. We do breakout the gain and that change in the fair value to provide a little more clarity on the gain on sale margins, but really the income has built up the interest rate lock commitment. The fair value change is really driven by the end-of-period pipeline balances and if you noticed our pipeline was down from quarter-to-quarter, so that causes the majority of that swing. So, the short answer is yes, that’s included, because it’s really based off the interest rate lock commitment forecast over the last half of the year. The component between gain and that fair value really is more of a timing issue than anything else.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead, madam

Got it. Okay. So you are not – your guidance isn’t necessarily including a large positive swing in that locked pipeline in the back half of the year, would that be a way to think about it?

Chris Holmes

Operator

Yes, just some incremental volume, but not necessarily in the fair value change per se.

Catherine Mealor

Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead, madam

Okay, that’s helpful. Thank you. Alright. Thank you so much. I will turn back to the queue.

Chris Holmes

Operator

Thank you, Catherine.

Operator

Operator

We will now take our next question from Peter Ruiz from Sandler O’Neill. Please go ahead.

Peter Ruiz

Analyst

Good morning, guys. How are you?

Chris Holmes

Operator

Peter, we are good. Thank you.

Peter Ruiz

Analyst

So, I guess just maybe with your comments on loan growth, I am not surprised here to see a little bit of commentary here on maybe a slowdown in the second half. But just with these 12 to 15 revenue producers coming online I guess in the next couple of weeks, it may take a little bit of time for them to hit the ground running, but what does that look like maybe in terms of 2019 growth? Is that just to help refill the bucket and maintain the long-term guidance or is there opportunity to kind to maybe outpace that?

Chris Holmes

Operator

Yes. As we bring folks on and I would say that 12 to 15, the reason we have got a range there is 12 of those folks are committed and about half of them are already on board. The other half are fully committed, but not announced yet and then we have got just a few others, 3 or 4 that we think we are going to get committed, but aren’t totally yet and that should be a tailwind for us on the production side. We have a few headwinds on the production side as well. And so we consider both of those – that’s where we are coming up with kind of being near our long-term guidance and so that’s when as we consider those folks coming on, there is going to be some expense and then it generally takes a month or two for them to really begin to have a lot of impact on the balances and so could come later this year, could come first quarter of next year.

Peter Ruiz

Analyst

Okay, that’s great. And I guess just maybe just touching on the NIM, deposit beta is obviously rising for the industry overall. Deposit growth was really strong. I know you had some benefit there from some larger deposit balances coming on. Do you think that your beta can, kind of stay near the current range if you see some continued strong deposit growth? And have there been any other changes outside of those more lumpy deposits that maybe you see some deposit growth dynamics changing at all?

Chris Holmes

Operator

Yes. So, just specific comment on betas and deposits, actually we do see that beta going higher next couple of quarters. And we have had good customer deposit growth, but we continue to have really strong asset growth and part of the key to our margin is you have also seen that we have let some wholesale funding leave the bank, so we continue to grow that customer funding. And we think just competitively that we are going to have to continue to get more competitive as this quarter goes on and we don’t see that relenting at least in the next couple of quarters and probably much longer than that. So yes, the answer is that deposit beta will go up from where it is in this quarter and we are prepared for that and we think that’s a good investment. And so we are going to continue to grow our deposit base, because that’s what’s going to allow us to grow the asset base. And today, on the beta between our loans and deposits, that’s a pretty good trade. And so we will continue to see that move up. On just deposits more generally, I don’t know that we can tell you anything terribly unique there. I will review the number of transcripts from calls already. It’s competitive. We like our position because of the mixture of both community markets and metropolitan markets, so we like our competitive position to be able to continue to methodically grow the balances there, and we like the fact that we have got both a retail deposit base and a commercial deposit base. So we unlike a lot of banks our size that are strictly a commercial deposit base, we’ve got a retail base as well and so we think that gives us an extra advantage, as we continue to bring on funding, and like I said, make the investment over the next couple of quarters and continue to grow that.

James Gordon

Chief Financial Officer

The other thing I would add, Peter, is that we don’t have a significant amount of true indexed deposits there in our base, although that is increasing, given some of the competitive pressures and the near term expectations as the rates are rising, which will also weighed in on our beta moving forward and then we will see the seasonal movements in some of the public funds, which is typically up in the later in the fourth quarter through the first quarter and then against the decline over the second and third quarters and early fourth quarter and then rebuilding but other than that, no real expected major moves, but it will likely cost more to have in-line growth on the deposit side to fund the balance sheet.

Peter Ruiz

Analyst

Okay, appreciate the color. I will step back in the queue. Thanks.

Chris Holmes

Operator

Thanks Peter.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Tyler Stafford from Stephens Inc.

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

This is actually Gordon McGuire on for Tyler how you go?

Chris Holmes

Operator

We are fine, Gordon. How are you?

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

Pretty well. So going back to the mortgage guide, I’m trying to pick apart how much of the lower guide came from the MSR sales versus a more muted gain on sales outlook and I know James you mentioned pressured volumes and margins in your prepared commentary, but it looks to me, if I back out the MSR sales from the fee line, it could account for pretty much all of the lower guide so arguably, it seems like the gain on sale outlook to be flat? So I guess my first question would be did that guide in May include or anticipate a similar MSR sale?

James Gordon

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, so we had our previous guidance really starting from the year included 1 or 2 MSR sales this was probably more of a cumulative, just dynamics in the market getting to kind of 1 sale we may have 1 sale later in the year, depending on the market and the capital level but those were really have been anticipated really heading into the year so the revised guidance this quarter really had very little to do with the MSR sale.

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

Got it. And then just I guess on that point, for the gain on sale piece, volumes were flat this quarter I think your margin improved some so I wonder if you could provide some additional commentary on those flat volumes and any outlook, or would you expect those to rebound next quarter?

Wib Evans

Analyst

Gordon, this is Wib Evans, and I would tell you that we expect to continue to see pressure our retail group continues to outperform kind of our expectation, but our correspondent group is not and so, we don’t see those volumes changing much at all, and it’s a mix issue for us if we sit here and continue down the road that we’re on today with our correspondent growth and performing at the levels that they are, we would continue to see that margin look about like it looks today obviously, it would pick that up and get that turned around, latter part of the year the overall sale margin will go down just purely from a mix perspective.

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

Got it. And then just lastly...

Chris Holmes

Operator

And we did have a change in the mix this quarter from primarily consumer direct as I noted in my comments to TPO and to retail, which obviously that tradeoff is very positive, particularly when retail is increasing.

James Gordon

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, trade-off to the margins, gain-on-sale margin.

Chris Holmes

Operator

Yes, to the gain-on-sale margin.

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

Perfect. And relative to the $1.8 million in amortization of the MSR this quarter, what do you think the impact from the sale could be in future quarters and kind of how do you think about forecasting that within your pre-tax contribution guide?

James Gordon

Chief Financial Officer

It probably will be. So that we are selling roughly one-third of the portfolio, so I would say, it should drop by roughly about 30% or one-third somewhere in that range, given the relative mix of that portfolio and our overall portfolio, so somewhere in that 30% call it 30% range, $500,000, $600,000 drop in the change in the fair value.

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

And would that just build as you grow, obviously excluding any said future sales, that amortization would just build as you grow the servicing portfolio over time?

James Gordon

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I mean it’s going to stay relatively if you look at it, it stays relatively consistent over the last, call it, 3 quarters in terms of the percentage and roughly the balance so because that also is net of our hedging call it that’s not all just pure amortization, so it’s kind of couple of moving parts but the biggest part is kind of the decay in the actual balances overtime payouts, etcetera.

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

Sure. And then last one for me real quickly on the NIM, the origination fees came up pretty substantially this quarter, I think drove a good bit on that core NIM expansion I assume it was just form the high production this quarter, but would you expect, as 3Q kind of gets back towards your guidance range, would that would you expect that to kind of normalize?

Chris Holmes

Operator

Yes, Gordon, you read it well. That’s exactly right.

Gordon McGuire

Analyst · Stephens Inc

That’s all I had guys. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

As there are no further questions at this time, I would now like to turn the call back to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks.

Chris Holmes

Operator

Very good. Thank you once again for joining us on the call. We are proud of the team and proud of our company and look forward to you joining us again next quarter. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this will now conclude today’s conference call. Thank you all for your participation today. You may now disconnect.