Premier Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:PFC) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 26, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Paul Nungester - EVP and CFO

Gary Small - President and CEO

Conference Call Participants

Michael Perito - KBW

Brendan Nosal - Piper Sandler

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Premier Financial Corp Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today’s presentation there will an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Nungester with Premier Financial Corp. Please go ahead.

Paul Nungester

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's second 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 the 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.

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

Gary Small

Thank you, Paul, and good morning to all. Thank you for joining us. On behalf of the Premier team I’m pleased to announce second quarter earnings of $1.35 per share with $0.68 of the earnings falling into the core operating category and another $0.67 a share resulting from a well-executed sale of our First Insurance Group agency.

Coming out of our first quarter call, we shared our expectations for a more normalized quarterly call earnings range and our team worked very hard to deliver on that expectation over the quarter.

First a comment on the First Insurance Group transaction. The genesis for the sale emanated from a strategic assessment of each of Premier's core business segments, taking into account earnings growth trajectory, effective capital utilization, and operating execution management. While the agency's financial performance has been consistently strong and currently on par with the industry, from a strategic perspective, we felt it would be -- we could achieve a higher return on capital and better position the agency to achieve its potential by pursuing alternatives in today's very dynamic agency valuation environment.