Southside Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBSI) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2022 12:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Lindsey Bailes - VP of IR

Lee Gibson - President and CEO

Julie Shamburger - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Brady Gailey - KBW

Brett Rabatin - Hovde Group

Brad Milsaps - Piper Sandler

Matt Olney - Stephens Inc.

Michael Young - Truist Securities

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Southside Bancshares, Inc. First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded.

I would now like turn to conference to your host Ms. Lindsey Bailes, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Lindsey Bailes

Thank you, Valerie. Good morning everyone and welcome to Southside Bancshares First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. A transcript of today's call will be posted on southside.com under Investor Relations.

During today's call and in other disclosures and presentations, I will remind you that any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could materially change our current forward looking assumptions are described in our earnings release and our Form 10-K.

Joining me today are Lee Gibson, President and CEO; and Julie Shamburger, CFO. First Lee, will share his comments on the quarter and then Julie will give an overview of our financial results.

I will now turn the call over to Lee.

Lee Gibson

Thank you. Good morning everyone and welcome to Southside Bancshares first quarter earnings call for 2022.

This morning we reported strong financial results for the first quarter. I want to start by recognizing and thanking the entire Southside team for their continued contributions and efforts, without which these results would not have been possible. Highlights for the quarter included earnings per share of $0.77, a return on average tangible common equity of 15.2%, annualized linked quarter loan growth, net of PPP of 19%.

Continued strong asset quality metrics and then efficiency ratio of 48.15%. Linked quarter, our net interest margin decreased one basis point due to $780,000 decrease in PPP loan accretion, which resulted in a 9 basis point decrease in the average yield on loans, partially offset by a 2 basis point increase due to the increase in interest rates.

Linked quarter, the average yield on securities increased 30 basis points and the average rate on our interest bearing liabilities decreased 2 basis points. During the quarter, as interest rates increase we sold $168 million of AFS securities and realized a loss of $1.5 million.