Good morning or good afternoon all. And welcome to the Landmark Bancorp, Inc. Q4 Earnings Call. My name is Adam, and I’ll be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call over to Michael Scheopner, President and Chief Executive Officer to begin. So, Michael, please go ahead when you are ready.

Thank you and good morning. Thank you for joining our call today to discuss Landmark’s earnings and the operating results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending 2023. Joining the call with me to discuss various aspects of our fourth quarter performance is Mark Herpich, Chief Financial Officer of the company; and the company’s Chief Credit Officer, Raymond McLanahan. Before we get started, I would like to remind our listeners that some of the information we will be providing today falls under the guidelines for forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of these guidelines, I must point out that any statements made during this presentation that discuss our hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements and our actual results could differ materially from those expressed. Additional information on these factors is included from time to time in our 10-K and 10-Q filings, which can be obtained by contacting the company or the SEC. Landmark’s results in 2023 were strong. Net income for the 12 months ending December 31st totaled over $12 million or an increase of over 23% from the prior year. This increase was achieved through solid growth in net interest income, well-controlled expenses and excellent credit quality in our loan portfolio. Further in 2023, we realized significant benefits from the integration of both people and systems as a result of our acquisition of Freedom Bank in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the fourth quarter 2023, we reported net earnings of $2.6 million, compared to $2.9 million in the prior quarter and $1.2 million in the fourth quarter 2022. Earnings per share on a fully diluted basis for the fourth quarter was $0.48. For the three months ended December 31, 2023, the return on average assets was…

Thanks, Michael, and good morning to everyone. While Michael has already summarized our financial results and performance in the fourth quarter of 2023, I’d like to provide further details on those results. As Michael mentioned, net income in the fourth quarter of 2023 totaled $2.6 million, compared to $2.9 million in the prior quarter and $1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. Net income this quarter declined in comparison to the prior quarter, mainly due to a $1.2 million loss on sales of investment securities, totaling $27 million, but offset by growth in net interest income and a slight decline in non-interest expense. In the fourth quarter of 2023, net interest income totaled $10.9 million, an increase of $260,000 compared to the third quarter of 2023, due primarily to increased interest income on loans, which more than offset an increase in interest expense. Total interest income on loans increased $692,000 this quarter and the tax equivalent yield on the loan portfolio increased 11 basis points to 6.04%. Average loans also increased by $28 million during the fourth quarter, adding to loan interest income. Interest income on investment securities decreased $3,000 to $3.2 million this quarter as a result of higher yields earned, but offset by a decline in average investment securities balances of $22.9 million. The yield on investment securities totaled 2.86% in the current quarter, compared to 2.77% in the prior quarter and 2.56% in the fourth quarter of 2022. Interest expense on deposits in the fourth quarter of 2023 increased $495,000, mainly due to higher rates and balances. The average rate on our interest-bearing deposits increased this quarter to 2.13%, compared to 1.93% last quarter, while the average balance of interest-bearing deposits increased 7.9 million. Interest expense on borrowed funds decreased $63,000 this quarter, despite higher rates…

Thank you, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the call this morning. As mentioned earlier, we enjoyed continued loan growth throughout the quarter, mainly due to increases in our residential mortgage and agricultural loan portfolios. Gross loans outstanding at the end of the year totaled $948.7 million, a representative increase of $11.2 million or 4.8% on an annualized basis from the previous quarter. Our residential mortgage loan portfolio increased $12.97 million this quarter, largely the result of continued demand for our adjustable rate loan products. Additionally, our agricultural loan portfolio increased $5.12 million. New originations to existing customers contributed to over half of this increase. Turning to our credit quality, by December 31, 2023, non-performing loans, mainly consisting of non-accrual loans, totaled $2.4 million, representing a decrease of $2 million from the prior quarter. The decrease in non-accrual loans was primarily due to a credit upgrade of a $1.4 million relationship, which returned to accruing status and the payoff of a non-accrual loan of $450,000. Total foreclosed real estate was relatively unchanged at $928,000 as we continue to actively pursue the sale of these properties. The balance of past due loans between 30 days and 89 days still accruing interest decreased $4.6 million this quarter and totaled $1.6 million or 0.17% of gross loans. Much has been written lately about the state of commercial real estate lending across the banking industry. At Landmark, we believe in banking relationships, not transactions. Because of the importance that we place on customer relationships, the majority of our commercial real estate portfolio is comprised of owner-occupied properties, which we believe have stable, low risk profiles. The asset quality of our CRE portfolio remains strong and we will work hard to keep it that way by staying disciplined in our credit culture, our vision and our approach to relationship banking. We recorded net loan charge-offs of $362,000 during the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to net loan charge-offs of $67,000 during the fourth quarter of 2022. Our allowance for credit losses totaled $10.6 million and ended the quarter at 1.12% of gross loans. Asset quality at Landmark has remained excellent over the last few years and we remain focused on maintaining strong metrics. The current economic landscape in Kansas is healthy. The preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Kansas as of December 31st was unchanged from the previous quarter at 2.8% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In terms of housing, inventory levels of available homes in Kansas continue to impact home prices. The Kansas Association of REALTORS President recently commented that sale prices are continuing to rise even as sales activity has slowed. Home prices in November increased 5% in Kansas compared to the same time last year, while prices in the Midwest increased 4.9% compared to last year. Home sales in Kansas fell by 7% in November compared to the same period of last year. With that, I thank, everyone, and I’ll now turn the call back over to Michael.

Thanks, Raymond, for your comments, and I also want to thank Mark for his comments earlier on the call. Before we go to questions, I want to summarize by saying that we are pleased with our performance for the fourth quarter and for the fiscal year ending 2023. I want to express my thanks and my appreciation to all of the associates at Landmark National Bank. Their daily focus on executing our strategies, delivering extraordinary service to our clients and communities, and carrying out our company vision that everyone starts as a customer and leaves as a friend is the key to our success. With that, I’ll open the call up to questions that anyone might have.

[Operator Instructions] As we have no questions, I’ll hand the call back to the management team for any concluding remarks. : :

Very well, and thank you. And I do want to thank everyone for participating in today’s earnings call. I truly do appreciate your continued support and the confidence that you have in our company. And I look forward to sharing news related to our first quarter 2024 results at our next earnings conference call. Thank you.

This concludes today’s call. Thank you very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your lines.