Brad Kessel
Analyst · Sandler O'Neill & Partners. Please go ahead
Good morning. Thank you for joining Independent Bank Corporation's conference call and webcast to discuss the Company's 2017 first quarter results. I’m Brad Kessel, President and Chief Executive Officer; and joining me is Rob Shuster, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin today's call, it is my responsibility to direct you to the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements. This is Slide 2 in our presentation. If anyone does not already have a copy of the press release issued by Independent today, you can access it at the Company's website, www.independentbank.com. The agenda for today's call will include prepared remarks followed by a question-and-answer session and then closing remarks. To follow along, I’ll begin with Slide 4 of our presentation. Typically with the first quarter of each year, our earnings can be lower than the other three quarters of our fiscal year as a result of lower loan volumes and higher operating expenses due to seasonality factors. That said, I am very pleased to report what I consider to be a strong start to 2017. Strong loan growth, continued deposit growth and continued improvement in asset quality metrics up lead to a 46% increase in our net income. Net interest income increased in both a sequential and year-over-year quarterly basis. These results are directly related to the ongoing effort of our entire team to capitalize on the many opportunities in our existing markets and new markets. This does include our recent investments and new associates to expand our mortgage banking business, which is already paying off with growth and gains on mortgage loans, both in mortgage – portfolio mortgage loans and income from mortgage servicing. As it relates to earnings for the first quarter of 2017, we are reporting net income of $6 million or $0.28 per diluted share versus net income of $4.1 million or $0.19 per diluted share in the prior year period. The first quarter’s results were driven by net interest income of $21.5 million, up $1.7 million, or 8.6% from the year-ago quarter and up $1.2 million, or 6% from the fourth quarter of 2016. Non-interest income improved to $10.3 million, up from $7.8 million, primarily as a result to gains and mortgage loans of $2.6 million, up $900,000 or 56% from the year-ago quarter and higher mortgage servicing income. In addition, we also saw year-over-year increases in both service charges and deposits and interchange income. As it relates to our balance sheet, total portfolio loans grew by $62.5 million or 15.8% annualized. At the same time, we also continue to see growth in deposits now at $2.26 billion, up from $2.15 billion one-year ago. Our loan to deposit ratio at quarter end of 73.83%, we believe provides us continued net interest income expansion opportunity. In addition, we also believe our capital level with tangible common equity to tangible assets at 9.78% provides further upside in growth of our earning asset base. At March 31, 2017, our tangible book value grew to $11.89 per share, up from $11.62 per share at the end of 2016. Today Independent Bank is the fourth largest bank, headquartered in Michigan. Our branch network is a combination of rural, suburban and urban markets. The conditions in these markets continue to be generally favorable as measured by the labor, housing and commercial real estate industries. Our balance sheet growth continues to come from more urban and suburban markets. At a high level, I would say the West Michigan market is the strongest followed by the Southeast Michigan market. A common theme in many of our markets is there of a shortage of housing supply. Accordingly, we are witnessing historically record low home listing times, rising residential real estate values and an increase in new construction. Our new loan production offices in Ann Arbor, Brighton, Troy and Traverse City, Michigan as well as Columbus and Fairlawn, Ohio are now up and running. For these markets, I would characterize Ann Arbor and Columbus market is been very strong. In addition, we have new loan production facilities also underway in Dearborn and Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The favorable economic conditions are seen in our loan origination and deposit gathering results. Page 7 of our presentation contains a good summary of our loans and deposits by region. We have seen year-over-year loan and deposit growth in each of the four Michigan markets. Total deposit as seen on Page 8 were $2.26 billion at March 31, 2017, an increase of $108.4 million or 5% since March 31, 2016. The increase in deposits in addition to being spread across our markets has also been in our retail, commercial and public fund portfolios. The Company's deposit base is substantially all cores funding with $1.79 billion or 79% in transaction accounts. While still very attractive and historically low during the first quarter of 2017, we did see a slight increase in our cost of deposits, moving at 26 basis points from 25 basis points in the prior quarter. Additionally, we are seeing some pressure in our markets on the deposit pricing front, particularly in the public funds sector. We are monitoring closely and actively managing to retain core by also limiting the effects of rising rates on our deposit base. As seen on Page 9, loans including loans held per sale increased to $1.74 billion at March 31, 2017. This represents the 12th consecutive quarter of net loan growth for our Company. During the first quarter, total portfolio loans grew by $62.5 million or 15.8% annualized. The commercial team generated $52.9 million in production during the first quarter, of which $29.7 million were new money committees, or $23.2 million were renewals. Overall, we continue to have a nice mix of new business by region, new business by segment and improved operating leverage for our commercial banking group. The commercial pipeline continues to be very healthy and supportive of our targeted annual growth rates. Our mortgage team originated $158.1 million and we sold $79.7 million during the first quarter of 2017. This compares favorably to the first quarter of 2016 when we originated $73.5 million and had sales of $55.7 million. This represents a 115.1% increase in originations and a 43.1% increase in sales. Overall the first quarter portfolio mortgages increased by $42.4 million or 31.9%. We did portfolio, a high percentage of our total mortgage originations than we budgeted for several reasons. Originally, we anticipated selling two-thirds of our production and one-third going to portfolio. Our actual mix is closer to 50% salable and 50% non-salable. While we did plan for a shift to more purchased money versus refinances, we are also capturing a larger share of the jumbo mortgage market. This was a goal with the expansion. In addition, we are seeing a higher demand for construction loans and non-warrantable condo loans. All three of these product types we currently placed into portfolio. Our retail banking channels originated $37.5 million for the first quarter of 2017 and grew by $8.6 million or 13.2% annualized. Other scores originations our indirect power score financing was [indiscernible]. Page 10, provide some information on our capital as well as four quarter rolling averages for return on assets and return on equity. We are targeting tangible common equity to range from 8.5% to 9.5%. Tangible common equity totals 9.78% of tangible assets at March 31, 2017 as compared to 9.6% one-year ago. Our plan is to retain capital for organic loan growth and return capital through consistent dividend payout plan and share repurchase plan. In January 24, 2017, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on our common stock of $0.10 a share. Also in January, the Board of Directors authorized the new share repurchase plan for 2017 under the terms of the share repurchase plan, the Company is authorized to buy back up to 5% of our outstanding common stock. This plan is authorized to last through the end of this calendar year. During the first quarter of 2017, we did not repurchase any shares. At this time, I would like to turn the presentation over to Rob Shuster to share a few comments on our financials credit quality and management's outlook for the balance of 2017.