Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (CFR) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 27, 2023 2:00 PM ET

Company Participants

A.B. Mendez - senior Vice President and Director-Investor Relations

Phil Green - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Jerry Salinas - Group Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Brady Gailey - KBW

Steven Alexopoulos - JPMorgan

Dave Rochester - Compass Point

Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley

Peter Winter - D.A. Davidson

Brandon King - Truist securities

Broderick Preston - UBS

Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets

Operator

Greetings and welcome to today's Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc., Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions]

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, A.B. Mendez, senior Vice President and Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.

A.B. Mendez

Thanks, Donna. This afternoon's conference call will be led by Phil Green, chairman and CEO and Jerry Salinas, Group executive Vice President and CFO. Before I turn the call over to Phil and Jerry, I need to take a moment to address the Safe Harbor provisions.

Some of the remarks made today will constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. We intend such statements to be covered by the Safe Harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended.

Please see the last page of this morning's earnings press release for additional information about the risk factors associated with these forward-looking statements. If needed, a copy of the release is available on our website or by calling the Investor Relations Department at 210-220-5234.

At this time, I'll turn the call over to Phil.

Phil Green

Thanks, A.B. Good afternoon, everyone and thanks for joining us. We are here to review the second quarter results and our Chief Financial Officer, Jerry Salinas, is going to provide some additional comments before we open it up to your questions. And in the second quarter, Cullen/Frost earned $160.4 million, or $2.47 per share, compared with earnings of $117.4 million, or $1.81 a share reported in the same quarter last year. That represents a 36.6% increase over last year's level.

Our return on average assets and average common equity in the second quarter were 1.30% and 19.36% respectively. And that compares with a 0.92% and 13.88% for the same period last year. Once again, I'm proud of the solid performance turned in by our outstanding staff in this unusual economic environment. The continued rate increases by the Federal Reserve and their fight against inflation have had their intended effect by slowing some segments of the market.