Allegiance Bancshares, Inc. (ABTX) Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call July 29, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Courtney Theriot - Chief Accounting Officer

Steve Retzloff - Chief Executive Officer

Ray Vitulli - President and Chief Executive Officer, Allegiance Bank

Paul Egge - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Allegiance Bank

Shanna Kuzdzal - Executive Vice President and General Counsel

Conference Call Participants

David Feaster - Raymond James

Brad Milsaps - Piper Sandler

Brady Gailey - KBW

Matt Olney - Stephens

Operator

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Second Quarter Allegiance Bancshares, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today’s conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Courtney Theriot, Chief Accounting Officer. Ma’am, please go ahead.

Courtney Theriot

Thank you, operator and thank you to all who have joined our call today. This morning’s earnings call will be led by Steve Retzloff, CEO of the company; Ray Vitulli, President of the company and CEO of Allegiance Bank; Paul Egge, Executive Vice President and CFO of Allegiance Bank; and Shanna Kuzdzal, Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

Before we begin, I need to remind everyone that some of the remarks made today constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. We intend all such statements to be covered by the Safe Harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the act. Also note that if we give guidance about future results, that guidance is only a reflection of management’s beliefs at the time the statement is made and such beliefs are subject to change. We disclaim any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, except as maybe required by law. Please see the last page of the text in this morning’s earnings release, which is available on our website at allegiancebank.com for additional information about the risk factors associated with forward-looking statements. We also have provided an investor presentation on our website. Although it is not being used as a guide for today’s comments, it is available for review at this time. At the conclusion of our remarks, we will open the line and allow time for questions.

I now turn the call over to our CEO, Steve Retzloff.

Steve Retzloff

Thank you, Courtney and good morning, everyone participating with us on today’s call. We thank you for your time and interest. We are quite pleased with our strong and steady progress, the higher core operating performance thus far in 2022 as we have established yet another record level of relationship-based loan originations while maintaining discipline on recurring non-interest expenses. Although our headline EPS for the second quarter was lower than the first quarter and the year ago quarter, our core operating performance improved on many levels, particularly after adjusting for the impact of PPP fee income and non-recurring items. Paul will expand on this in greater detail in his commentary, but the primary improvement driver was core loan growth.