Earnings Labs

TrustCo Bank Corp NY (TRST)

Q3 2017 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 24, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the TrustCo Bank Corp Third Quarter 2017 Earnings Call and Webcast. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Before proceeding, we would like to mention that this presentation may contain forward-looking information about TrustCo Bank Corp New York that is intended to be covered by the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results and trends could differ materially from those set forth in such statements due to various risks, uncertainties and other factors. More detailed information about these and other risk factors can be found in our press release that preceded this call and in the Risk Factors and forward-looking statements section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K and as updated by our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The statements are valid only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update this information except as maybe required by applicable law. Today's presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliations of such measures to the most comparable GAAP figures are included in our earnings press release, which is available under the Investor Relations tab of our website at trustcobank.com. Please also note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Robert J. McCormick, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Robert McCormick

Analyst

Thanks Kerry. Good morning, everyone. I am Rob McCormick, President of the Bank, Mike Ozimek, our CFO and Scot Salvador, our Chief Banking Officer will be presenting with me today. Kevin Timmons is with us to keep us on track. We are happy to report another solid quarter at TrustCo, up 15% in the third quarter. Our loan portfolio grew to $3.58 billion. This is up both quarter-to-quarter and year-over-year. We have about $234 million over 2016 quarter end, up $3.39 billion. As usual, most of the growth occurred in residential mortgages. Our commercial loan portfolio was up quarter-over-quarter, but down slightly over the same quarter in 2016. Home equity credit loans continued on the downward trend. We believe we are retaining a large portion of this in our mortgage portfolio through refinances. We are not big on installment loans and that portfolio stays relatively flat. We do see the current credit at line at runoff slowing and hope for some opportunity in the commercial loan area in the future. Quality loan portfolio continued to improve non-performing loans to total loans and total assets dropped to 0.69% and 0.56% both lower than the same quarter in 2016. Our allowance for total loans stood at a solid 1.23% with a coverage ratio of almost 180% and stable net charge-offs. Our deposits stayed pretty flat year-over-year. We are happy to see the growth in demand in interest-bearing checking in the lower end of the cost range also building customer relations. We did not open any branches during the quarter, but have several new opportunities in the pipeline. We continue to operate 144 full service offices. Thankfully we had very little impact from hurricane Irma. Our average deposit per branch continues to go up and in the quarter almost $29 million. As the release says, we are believers of strong, friendly branch network. We continue to have a large investment portfolio with relatively short maturities and a strong liquidity position. Most of you know, we operate a full service trust department with over $850 million under management. Our net income for the first nine months of 2017 was $35.8 million, up 12.5% from the $31.8 million in 2016. Our margin improved 17 basis points to 3.26. Our return on average assets and equity for the quarter were just over 1% and just over 11% respectively, better than the same three months last year. Our efficiency ratio of 52.8 also improved over 2016. The first nine months, the bank has been good. We look forward to closing 2017 strong. Now, Michael will detail the numbers. Scott will discuss loans, and then we’ll have time for questions. Mike?

Michael Ozimek

Analyst

Thank you, Rob, and good morning everyone. I will now review TrustCo’s financial results for the third quarter of 2017. As we noted in the press release, net income increased to $12.6 million in the third quarter of 2017 or 15% compared to $10.9 million for the third quarter of 2016. Net income yielded a return on average assets and average equity of 1.02% and 11.06% compared to 0.90% and 10.05% in the third quarter of 2016. Let’s again start with the changes in the balance sheet. We continued strong loan growth during the third quarter of 2017, which is typically a strong season in all of our markets. As expected, the growth continues to be concentrated within our primary lending focus, the residential real estate portfolio. That portfolio increased by $76.8 million or 2.6% on average compared to the last quarter and $260 million or 7.7% from the third quarter of 2016. As noted before, this continues a positive shift in the balance sheet from lower yielding overnight investments to higher yielding core loan relationships. Total average investment securities, which include the AFS and HTM portfolios decreased $53.5 million during the quarter or 7.8% and $52.8 million or 7.7% from the third quarter of 2016. As discussed in prior calls, our focus continues to be on traditional lending and conservative balance sheet management, which has continued to enable us to produce consistent earnings. Regards to our investment portfolio, we will continue to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves during the remainder of 2017 and beyond. Keeping in mind, the current environment that has seen rate hikes back in December 2016 and again in March and June of this year with the likelihood of more to come. As a result, we continue to carry $622 million of overnight…

Scot Salvador

Analyst

Okay Mike, thanks. The bank continued to experience solid loan growth for the third quarter. Overall, total loans increased $70 million or 2%. Year-over-year, the increase has totaled $191 million or 5.6%. Residential mortgages grew by $66 million on the quarter with commercial loans increasing by $4 million. Residential mortgage growth occurred in all our market areas. Our Greater New York market accounted for approximately 58% of the net increase with the rest occurring in Florida. We have seen solid purchase money in overall loan activities throughout the summer and early fall months and are pleased with the performance results year-to-date. Through nine months, the net growth in our residential portfolio was up approximately 30% over the last year. Good loan activity, combined with a slower refinance market have contributed to this increase. We began the fourth quarter with a strong loan backlog. It is roughly equivalent to where we ended the last quarter and up over 20% from the same point last year. Loan production typically slows in the fourth quarter due to seasonal factors. Despite this, we are optimistic about posing solid growth in the upcoming quarter. Rates have remained in the high 3% range over the last couple of months and we are currently at 3.99% for a 30 year mortgage. Nonperforming loans remained relatively flat since the end of the second quarter and are down $1.5 million year-over-year. Currently, nonperforming loans are equal to 0.69% of total loans or $24.6 million. nonperforming assets stand at $27.5 million, down $3.3 million year-over-year. Our loan allowance stands at 1.23% of total loans as of September 30. This compares to an annualized net charge-off ratio of 0.07% for the third quarter. Early-stage delinquencies in the portfolio continue to remain strong. Rob?

Robert McCormick

Analyst

Thanks Scott. We're happy to answer any questions you have.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Alex Twerdahl with Sandler O'Neill. Please go ahead.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Hey, good morning guys.

Robert McCormick

Analyst

Good morning, Alex.

Mike Ozimek

Analyst

Good morning, Alex.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

First question. I am just wondering, as I look at the expenses and the expense guidance, if it’s possible to quantify, I know you’ve been kind of running a little bit heavy over the last couple of years due to the regulatory agreement which hopefully were on the way working out of, but when that’s lifted, is there any way to quantify what expenses could potentially go away?

Robert McCormick

Analyst

I mean, the biggest piece of that Alex, that we still see is in the consulting side. And what we do see is, it’s a little choppy now. The reality is, we’ve hired a lot of the people to kind of do the work in-house. But you do see, if there is anything there is quarter-to-quarter, there could be a few $100,000 each quarter that kind of go in there, so. But there isn’t much left.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Okay. And then, just looking at deposits, as deposits declined a little bit sequentially, I am just wondering if you think that could be potentially correlated to the fact that you guys really haven’t raised rates at all, if people are coming in and looking for higher deposit rates and going somewhere else or after seeing any sort of pressure, anything in the upstate New York market or in the Florida market with respect to deposit cost, because clearly you’ve been able to keep the actual rates very low as we’ve had four rate hikes.

Robert McCormick

Analyst

And we felt that it was more important to keep the rates low, Alex and maintain our margins rather than chase some of the CD money that’s been out there. We’ve been very encouraged by our growth in core, which is really what we are looking to do. We are looking to build customers in long-term. We think that will benefit the shareholders more than chasing the CDs or the hotter monies. So, we come in out of that market as we need to, Alex, kind of maintain customer relationships. We are trying to tie accounts together and things like that, so. But we are not looking to book a lot of hot money.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Okay. And then, I think you alluded to some several – or to several large estates that were settled in the third quarter that elevated the TrustCo’s financial services line. Can you quantify what that was? Is it about maybe around $400,000? Does that…

Robert McCormick

Analyst

That’s about it. It’s a little inside of that. But that’s – that, you are right on target.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Okay. And then, just as I think about the tax rate came down a little bit in the third quarter, is that due to some of the equity incentive stuff, because, big addition in the third quarter, is that going to go back to 37.5 in the fourth quarter?

Robert McCormick

Analyst

Well, you hit the first part. It’s the equity incentives, but it was on exercises. So it’s the benefit that we record on that.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Okay. So, going back to 37.5, is a decent rate to use for the fourth quarter do you think?

Robert McCormick

Analyst

Yes, unless we have any other discrete items, but yes, that’s where we should be.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions guys.

Robert McCormick

Analyst

Thanks, Alex.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Robert J. McCormick for any closing remarks.

Robert McCormick

Analyst

As always, thank you for your interest in our company. We hope to talk to you in January and have a good day, thanks.