Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call January 27, 2022 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Adriano Duarte - Head of Investor Relations
Tony Labozzetta - President & Chief Executive Officer
Tom Lyons - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Mark Fitzgibbon - Piper Sandler
Bill Young - RBC Capital Markets
Michael Perito - KBW
Operator
Hello and welcome to today's Provident Financial Services, Inc. Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. My name is Bailey [ph] and I'll be the moderator for today's call. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Adriano Duarte, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Adriano Duarte
Thank you, Bailey [ph]. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us for our fourth 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 this morning'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 the fourth quarter results. Tony?
Tony Labozzetta
Thank you, Adriano and good morning, everyone. Provident finished the year strong by delivering another solid financial performance in the fourth quarter. We produced record interest income and record non-net interest income, resulting in earnings of $0.66 per share. Our performance was driven by loan growth, the stability of our deposit base that continues to exhibit good betas and sound balance sheet management, all of which resulted in an expansion of our net interest margin to 3.62%.
The expanding net interest margin drove a 4.2% increase in net interest income over the trailing quarter. This resulted in an annualized return on average assets of 1.42% and a return on average tangible equity of 17.51%. Our solid earnings performance continues to positively impact capital which remains strong and comfortably exceeds well capitalized levels. As such, our Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share, payable on February 24. At Provident, we remain focused on our mission of delivering a best-in-class customer experience and deepening the emotional connections with our customers, thereby creating advocates for life. We believe this is essential to build and retain all of our businesses. Our emphasis is commercial lending. And in the fourth quarter, we closed approximately $574 million of new commercial loans which increased our production to $2.4 billion for the calendar year.