United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 19, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Lynn Harton - Chairman and CEO
Jefferson Harralson - CFO
Rich Bradshaw - President and CBO
Rob Edwards - CRO
Conference Call Participants
Catherine Mealor - KBW
Stephen Scouten - Piper Sandler Companies
Brandon King - Truist
Michael Rose - Raymond James
Kevin Fitzsimmons - D.A. Davidson
David Bishop - The Hovde Group
Russell Gunther - Stephens
Christopher Marinac - Janney
Operator
Good morning and welcome to the United Community Banks Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Hosting the call today are, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lynn Harton; Chief Financial Officer, Jefferson Harralson; President and Chief Banking Officer, Rich Bradshaw; and Chief Risk Officer, Rob Edwards.
United's presentation today includes references to operating earnings, pre-tax, pre-credit earnings, and other non-GAAP financial information. For these non-GAAP financial measures, United has provided a reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measure in the Financial Highlights section of the earnings release, as well as at the end of the investor presentation, both are included on the website at ucbi.com.
Copies of the second quarter's earnings release and investor presentation were filed last night on Form 8-K with the SEC, and a replay of this call will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at ucbi.com.
Please be aware that during this call, forward-looking statements may be made by representatives of United. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of risks and uncertainties described on pages five and six of the company's 2022 Form 10-K as well as other information provided by the company in its filings with the SEC and included on its website.
At this time, I will turn the call over to Lynn Harton.
Lynn Harton
Good morning and thank you for joining our call today. Our operating earnings this quarter were $0.55 per share, down slightly from $0.58 per share last quarter. Our operating return on assets was 1% for the quarter and our operating pre-tax pre-provision ROA was 165 basis points, down modestly from 171 basis points last quarter.
As expected, the current level of interest rates and particularly the pace of rate increases is influencing our results. While we were pleased with our deposit growth for the quarter, we did see continued deposit mix changes as customers move from non-interest bearing accounts into higher-yielding products.
Our cost of deposits increased to 164 basis points, up from 110 basis points last quarter. This was partially offset by a 21 basis point increase in our earning asset yields, leaving our net interest margin at 3.37% for the quarter.