Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS) Q3 2023 Results Conference Call October 27, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Adriano Duarte - IR Officer

Tony Labozzetta - President and CEO

Tom Lyons - Sr. EVP and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Mark Fitzgibbon - Piper Sandler

Bill Young - RBC Capital Markets

Michael Perito - KBW

Manuel Navas - D.A. Davidson

Operator

Good morning. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Provident Financial Services, Inc. Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

Adriano Duarte, Investor Relations Officer, you may begin your conference.

Adriano Duarte

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter earnings call. Today’s presenters are President and CEO, Tony Labozzetta; and Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Tom Lyons.

Before beginning the review of our financial results, we ask that you please take note of our standard caution as to any forward-looking statements that may be made during the course of today’s call. Our full disclaimer is contained in last night’s earnings release, which has been posted to the Investor Relations page on our website, provident.bank.

Now it’s my pleasure to introduce Tony Labozzetta, who will offer his perspective on our third quarter. Tony?

Tony Labozzetta

Thank you, Adriano. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Provident Financial Services earnings call. The third quarter was marked by rising interest rates and persistent inflationary pressures. These conditions have presented substantial challenges to many in the banking sector. Against that backdrop, I’m pleased to report that Provident has demonstrated its resilience and agility, delivering results that point towards the underlying strength of our operation and our commitment to responsible growth.

Despite the difficult economic environment, Provident produced good financial results this quarter, which once again demonstrates the strength of the franchise and talented management team. As such, we reported earnings of $0.38 per share, an annualized return on average assets of 0.81% and a return on average tangible equity of 9.47%.

Excluding merger-related charges, our core pretax pre-provision return on average assets was 1.48%. At quarter end, our capital was strong and exceeded well-capitalized levels. Tangible book value per share was $15.41 and our common -- tangible common equity ratio was solid at 8.54%.

As such, our Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share payable on November 24. Presently, our uninsured and uncollateralized deposits are $2.5 billion or approximately 25% of our total deposits. Our on-balance sheet liquidity plus borrowing capacity is $3.6 billion or 144% on insured deposits.