Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (CFR) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 28, 2022 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

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Brady Gailey - KBW

Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America

Jennifer Demba - Truist Securities

Steven Alexopoulos - JPMorgan

Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets

Bill Carcache - Wolfe Research

Dave Rochester - Compass Point

Peter Winter - Wedbush Securities

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Cullen/Frost Bankers First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to A.B. Mendez, Senior Vice President and Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

A.B. Mendez

Thanks, Daryl. Our conference call today 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 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 Reform Act of 1995 as amended. Please see the last page of text in this morning’s earnings 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 Investor Relations at 210-220-5234.

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

Phil Green

Thanks, A.B. and good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. I will review the first quarter results for Cullen/Frost and our CFO, Jerry Salinas, will provide additional comments and then we are going to open it up for your questions as a normal practice.

In the first quarter, Cullen/Frost earned $97.4 million or $1.50 per share compared with earnings of $113.9 million or $1.77 a share reported in the same quarter last year and $99.4 million or $1.54 a share in the fourth quarter of 2021. Our return on average assets and average common equity in the first quarter were 79 basis points and 9.58% respectively. And I am happy with these results to start the year and I am optimistic about the prospects for our sustainable organic growth strategy as business activity continues to return to normal and we move further into a rising interest rate environment.