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WesBanco, Inc. (WSBC)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 23, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to WesBanco’s Conference Call. My name is Marlene and I will be your conference facilitator today. Today’s call will cover WesBanco’s discussion of results of operations for the third quarter ended September 30, 2013. Please be advised all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. (Operator Instructions) Please note this call is also being recorded. If you object to the recording, please disconnect at this time. Forward-looking statements in this presentation relating to WesBanco’s plans, strategies, objectives, expectations, intentions and adequacy of resources are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The information contained herein should be read in conjunction with WesBanco’s 2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports which are available on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov, or at WesBanco’s website, www.wesbanco.com. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements, which are not historical fact, involve risks and uncertainties, included those details in WesBanco’s 2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC under the section Risk Factors in Part I, Item 1A. Such statements are subject to important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such statements. WesBanco does not assume any duty to update any forward-looking statements. WesBanco’s third quarter 2013 earnings release was issued yesterday and is available at www.wesbanco.com. This call will include about 20 to 30 minutes of prepared commentary, followed by a question-and-answer period, which I will facilitate. An archived webcast of this call will be available at wesbanco.com. WesBanco’s participants in today’s call will be Paul Limbert, President and Chief Executive Officer; Jim Gardill, Chairman of the Board; and Robert Young, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. And all will be available for questions following the opening statements. Mr. Limbert, you may begin your conference sir.

Paul Limbert

Management

Thank you, Marlene. Good morning everyone. Thank you for choosing to participate in WesBanco’s third quarter 2013 earnings conference call. We are pleased that you have joined us this morning to hear about WesBanco’s excellent operating results. I would like to make some opening comments. Bob Young, our CFO, will provide financial highlights. And then, Jim Gardill, our Chairman, will moderate the question-and-answer period. A press release detailing the results of the third quarter and the year-to-date was issued last evening. A copy of the entire press release is available on our website. We will assume that all participants are familiar with WesBanco and we can begin our discussion of the third quarter financial results. WesBanco had an excellent third quarter and year-to-date results. The ROA for the third quarter was 1.01%, and the year-to-date ROA was 1.07%. The return on tangible equity was 16.4%. These ratios include the expenses incurred relating to the Fidelity merger, but still represent above peer group returns. Net income for year-to-date 2013, represents an increase of 32% from the year-to-date 2012. These results have allowed us to raise our quarterly dividend for a second time in 2013 to $0.20 or a 5% increase. Our dividend has been increased six times in the last 11 quarters. The increased earnings was provided by improvements in net interest income, revenue growth, significant loan growth, continued improvement in credit quality and control of other operating expenses. Bob Young will provide additional details relating to the improvements. Our acquisition of Fidelity has been fully integrated. Now we have turned our attention to improving our market position in Pittsburg. We’re continuing the process of visiting existing customers and hiring additional revenue producing employees. To-date, we’ve added to the Pittsburg market, treasury management, private banking, securities brokerage representatives and additional lending…

Robert Young

Management

Thank you, Paul. Good morning all. Earnings per share for the third quarter as Paul indicated were $0.53, up from $0.48 last year, an increase of 10.4%. GAAP net income was $15.5 million versus $12.9 million, up 20.4%. For the nine months, earnings per share were strong $1.66 per share as compared to $1.38 for the first nine months of last year, that’s up some 20.3%. Net income was $48.6 million versus $36.9 million for the same comparable period, up 31.7%. If you were to exclude merger-related and restructuring expenses, net of tax for both nine month periods, net income was up some 30.4% and earnings per share 18.3%. Continued improvements in credit quality contributed to the increase in earnings, along with the positive operating leverage of net revenue growth outpacing expenses as Paul just mentioned. The nine month period continued to show positive operating leverage post-Fidelity acquisition with total revenue growth exceeding expenses. The Fidelity acquisition and improved cost of funds helped to improve the net interest margin and pre-tax pre-provision earnings were 1.69% for both periods. Earnings per share, was up by a lesser percentage than net income due to the 2.5 million common shares that were issued last year for the Fidelity acquisition. Return on average assets and return on average equity are significantly ahead of last year’s results, and core operating efficiency is right around 60%. Return on tangible equity increased to 16.4%, which puts us in a high performing tier of similar size banks. Turning to the income statement in detail. Net interest income increased $4.4 million or 10.6% in the third quarter and $13.2 million or 10.5% for the first nine months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012, due to increased average earning assets primarily through increased average loan balances. Average…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question is from Stephen Scouten from KBW in Georgia. Please go ahead. Stephen Scouten – Keefe Bruyette & Woods: Yes, hi guys. Thanks for taking my questions here.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

Good morning, Steve. Stephen Scouten – Keefe Bruyette & Woods: Couple of quick ones just on the salaries, the higher salary this quarter. Is that predominantly from production and incentive income that was seen as a carryover from last quarter or are there any other drivers there, because I guess it looks like actual headcount was down yet again quarter-over-quarter?

Jim Gardill

Analyst

Steve, it is. And I’ll let Bob give you some particulars on that, but the higher incentives on the loan production drove part of that. We also have headcounts as we’ve added sales personnel in the quarter that we detailed on loan originators and commercial loan officers.

Robert Young

Management

Our average full-time equivalent count for the quarter – this quarter, Steve, versus the third quarter of last year, 13.90 last year, 14.71 this quarter. And again that’s primarily due to the additional employees from Fidelity. We had our normal round of compensation adjustments which typically had around 3%. And as Jim mentioned, increased brokers commission expense as our brokerage commission revenues were up over 40%. So mortgage originations were also up and those commissions are reflected there as well. Similar factors in the year-to-date, Steve. Stephen Scouten – Keefe Bruyette & Woods: Okay, that makes sense. And then I know last quarter you had said you’ve added 12 new lenders year-to-date and then we’re hoping to add maybe 12 more. And then you said, you did add more, but I wasn’t sure if I heard a specific number. Did you have any clarity on the exact amount of additional lenders that were hired?

Jim Gardill

Analyst

Yes, we’re stuck at the 12. Stephen Scouten – Keefe Bruyette & Woods: Okay.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

And what happened is we continue that lenders, but we had some resignations during the quarter also. So that caused us to be still at that net 12. Stephen Scouten – Keefe Bruyette & Woods: Okay. And then I guess, the last question I had was just in regards to the C&I and CRE loan balances. It looks like those were both down quarter-over-quarter on an end of period basis. Just wondering if you could lend any color there as to what’s going on in those specific classifications, if there is any change in market trends that you are seeing or anything like that?

Robert Young

Management

Two things. And Paul you can jump in if you want. Remember I mentioned the $16 million in what we call unusual pay downs in the third quarter. Most of that is in the CRE classification, although some of that’s offset by construction loans which are also in the same classification moving from an unfinished capacity over to permanent financing on the CRE side. Also although I mentioned that C&I had approximately the 44% usage as compared to the second quarter, we did noticed that our line usage rate for certain mortgage warehouse lines were down in the third quarter and that’s to be expected given the lower refinance volumes in the industry. So those are the two primary factors affecting those two line items.

Paul Limbert

Management

And if there are some pay downs that were noted in Bob’s comments is also a significant part. We did have $60 million in payoffs and pay downs that Bob had noted. We still are seeing pay downs, payoffs being very significant in our portfolio. And again we don’t view those negatively. We view those as the right way of lending to excellent customers who are doing the right things with their asset. So but we continue to see that kind of activity. The kind of what markets are very active.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

I think generally speaking we’re pretty well pleased with the 4% growth year-to-date slightly above that on an annualized basis that would equate close to 6% and while the rate is also in the third quarter is compared to the second, is primarily related to the aforementioned pay downs. A lot of our pipeline are construction related loans and they all come online here as those construction projects continue to play out over the next few months. Stephen Scouten – Keefe Bruyette & Woods: Okay. Thanks guys. I appreciate the color.

Paul Limbert

Management

All right, Steve. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is William Wallace, Raymond James from Virginia. Please go ahead. William Wallace – Raymond James: Good afternoon gentlemen, or morning from [indiscernible].

Jim Gardill

Analyst

Good morning, Wally. How are you? William Wallace – Raymond James: I am good. Thank you. Just bisecting the line, but a little bit more on the residential side, was that growth driven by new originations during the quarter or did you transfer from out of held for sale?

Paul Limbert

Management

No, it’s the former not the later.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

Right. Paul Limbert It’s all on originations, Wally. William Wallace – Raymond James: Okay.

Paul Limbert

Management

Production was stronger year-over-year even though it’s slowed down towards the end of the third quarter. William Wallace – Raymond James: Great. And so can you tell me a little bit about the nature of those? Are those variable rate or fixed rate?

Paul Limbert

Management

They are – it’s a combination of variable rate and 15-year fixed rate. William Wallace – Raymond James: And…

Jim Gardill

Analyst

30s [ph] get sold in the secondary. Anything above 15 years, we sell into the secondary market, Wally. William Wallace – Raymond James: Okay. And Paul in your prepared commentary you talked about continuing to invest earnings and do the business. And as analysts, as we look at our model, how should we think about how new cost dollars will be replaced by revenue dollars or how long do you expect that those investments payoff from a revenue perspective?

Paul Limbert

Management

Well that one is a hard question Wally, and I can make a stab at answering it, but it’s only going to be my guess, it’s not going to be based on any hard facts here. But as we are reinvesting, and particularly commercial loan officers, the length of time that it takes to get a commercial loan officer to actually put a significant number of loans on the books is probably at least six to nine month timeframe. And we are focusing in on adding commercial lenders in as part of our reinvestment. So that’s a relatively long timeframe to get them productive. We are also adding private banking folks and security folks to our organization. The recurrence for those kinds of individuals is much shorter, probably four to six months kind of timeframes. So it does take a while from the time of hiring till the time we really see revenue growth. And it’s very much different depending upon who – what type of people we are hiring and what type of products they are selling. Very difficult question. William Wallace – Raymond James: Well, I appreciate the [indiscernible] that was actually very helpful. Thank you. That was my last question.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

All right. Thank you, Wally.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is John Moran from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Michael Burn – Macquarie Capital: Good morning guys. This is actually Michael Burn in for John.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

Okay, Mike. Good morning. Michael Burn – Macquarie Capital: Just a quick question. Can you just sort of give a little more detail on the reasoning behind your decision to retain the one to four family loan this quarter, and maybe just your sort of appetite for that going forward?

Paul Limbert

Management

Well actually that decision was made several quarters ago. Towards the end of last year, we were looking at our planning for 2013, and actually made that decision to increase the number of loans, one to four family mortgage loans we were putting in our portfolio. There are two primary reasons for that. First was simply we were looking for loan growth and certainly one of the ways that we can generate additional loan growth. And I think the second important issue is we wanted to act like a community bank for the mortgage customers that we have and all those mortgage customers in our portfolio so that we could cross-sell them with other bank services. We felt that we could – the asset sensitivity of our organization or the asset liability management sensitivity of our organization could handle the added duration of the 15 years, particularly because the duration in our investment portfolio was so short. So we felt we could handle the duration. We felt that it was an important customer service and we certainly needed to add additional loans to our portfolio for ‘13. So that decision was really made several quarters ago.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

I think it gives you stable sources of revenue and interest income to offset some of the volatility in the commercial loan portfolio that you see with the payoffs? Michael Burn – Macquarie Capital: Okay, that’s helpful. And then just sort of to remind you, so you mentioned that commercial line usage was flat, sort of on the linked quarter basis, but the mortgage warehouse lines were a bit lower on the usage. Does that imply sort of other loan types or initial [ph] pipeline usage was up, and if so, can you just give a little more detail on it?

Paul Limbert

Management

Yes, I think a couple of things, and I’ll let Bob speak in particular, Mike, but basically if we were putting more C&I loans on the books, but it’s the sequence of drawing down against those lines. The mortgage line usage was down because of demand with our warehouse lenders or borrowers in that case. And so we’re seeing some impact on the draw. I don’t have a specific number. Bob, any thoughts on that?

Robert Young

Management

Yes, I don’t know either, but I can tell you that the mortgage warehouse business – it’s only a small portion of our overall C&I business. This isn’t as material as you’ve heard from other banks. It is a business that we inherited from Fidelity and we do hope to grow in the future, but we have noticed that those lines as those particular mortgage companies primarily in the Pittsburg market have seen lower demand obviously that line usage is down. I am not giving you color on commercial lines. This is just straight C&I lines, and talking about 44% as compared to the second quarter. That is up from this time last year at about 39% to 40%. So I think if you want to argue that we didn’t have – obviously, we didn’t have the Fidelity lines before the end of the year, and looking backwards, I think that does portend a trend of higher usage in the marketplace, possibly some of that related to the growth in Marcellus in our marketplace. Michael Burn – Macquarie Capital: Okay. Thanks a lot, guys.

Paul Limbert

Management

Thanks, Mike.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Please hold while we poll for any final questions. Having no further questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn conference back over to Mr. Jim Gardill for any closing remarks.

Jim Gardill

Analyst

Thank you, Marlene. We appreciate the participation by everyone on this morning’s call. We’re very pleased with the 20% increase in earnings per share year-to-date and the 30% increase in net income year-to-date. With our return on average assets over 1% we think it was a very strong performance. We certainly had some impact with our loan sale, but as we’ve said in previous quarters, we’re really trying to blend for the strategic long-term strength of the corporation and we had an opportunity to do that this quarter and that seemed like the smart thing to do for the long-term of this company. So we appreciate everyone’s participation. Thank you very much this morning.

Operator

Operator

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