Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 31, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Bruce Lee - President & Chief Executive Office

Bryan McKeag - Chief Financial Officer

Nathan Jones - Chief Credit Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

David Long - Raymond James

Andrew Liesch - Piper Sandler

Terence McEvoy - Stephens

Damon DelMonte - KBW

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to HTLF's 2023 Second Quarter Conference Call. This afternoon, HTLF announced its second quarter financial results, and hopefully, you've had a chance to review the earnings release that is available on HTLF's website @htlf.com. With us today from management are Bruce Lee, President and CEO; Bryan McKeag, Chief Financial Officer; and Nathan Jones, Chief Credit Officer. Management will provide a summary of the quarter, and then we will open the call to your questions.

Before we begin the presentation, I would like to remind everyone that some of the information provided today falls under the guidelines of forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of these guidelines, any statements made during this presentation concerning the company's hopes, beliefs, expectations and predictions of the future are forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. Additional information on these factors is included from time to time in the company's 10-K and 10-Q filings, which may be obtained on the company's or the SEC's websites.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Bruce Lee, HTLF President and CEO. Please go ahead, Mr. Lee.

Bruce Lee

Thank you, Abigail. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Bruce Lee, President and CEO. Welcome to HTLF's 2023 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. I appreciate you joining us today as we discuss our solid performance and momentum heading into the second half of the year. For the next few minutes, I'll discuss HTLF's highlights for the quarter then turn the call over to Bryan McKeag, Chief Financial Officer, for more details on our performance and financials. Also joining us today is Nathan Jones, Chief Credit Officer, who can answer questions regarding the stable credit quality across our portfolios.

The HTLF Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share on the company's common stock payable on August 25, 2023. The Board also approved a dividend of $175 for Series E preferred stock, which results in a dividend of $0.4375 per depository share, payable on October 16, 2023. For more than 40 years, HTLF has increased or maintained our common stock dividend each quarter. This reflects our strength and stability and confidence in our strategies and performance. In the second quarter, HTLF's strength and diverse geography enabled us to continue executing our strategies despite recent industry challenges. We delivered strong loan growth and new customer relationships. And our stable deposit base and growth strategies give us momentum heading into the second half of the year.