Premier Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:PFC) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 25, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Paul Nungester - Chief Financial Officer

Gary Small - President and Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

Michael Perito - KBW

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Premier Financial Corp. Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Ellen and I will be the operator for today’s call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Paul Nungester with Premier Financial Corp. Paul, please go ahead, whenever you’re ready.

Paul Nungester

Thank you. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us for today’s third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. This call is also being webcast and the audio replay will be available at the Premier Financial Corp. website at premierfincorp.com. Following our prepared comments on the company’s strategy and performance, we will be available to take your questions.

Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that during the conference call today, including during the question-and-answer period, you may hear forward-looking statements related to future financial results and business operations for Premier Financial Corp. Actual results may differ materially from current management forecasts and projections as a result of factors over which the company has no control. Information on these risk factors and additional information on forward-looking statements are included in the news release and in the company’s reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I’ll now turn the call over to Gary for his opening comments.

Gary Small

Thank you, Paul and good morning. Thank you all for joining us. On behalf of the Premier team, I am pleased to announce third quarter earnings of $24.7 million or $0.69 per share. Results were in line with our expectations for the quarter and represents favorable performance versus consensus expectations. Core net income was up $0.5 million or 2% on a linked-quarter basis. We posted an ROA of 1.14%, and our return on average tangible equity came in at 15.6% for the quarter.

EPS topped quarter two results with net interest income up 2% on an annualized basis and net interest margin improving slightly versus the prior quarter. Year-to-date loan growth stands at 4% and our average loan growth for the quarter was up 2.9% on an annualized basis, and that was a bit better than our – we had anticipated. C&I originations were 40% of the third quarter commercial commitments.