Univest Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UVSP) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 25, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeffrey Schweitzer - President and CEO

Mike Keim - President and COO, Univest Bank and Trust

Brian Richardson - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Tim Switzer - KBW

Frank Schiraldi - Piper Sandler

Matthew Breese - Stephens Inc.

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome. My name is Drew, and I'll be your operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Univest Financial Corporation Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now turn the call over to your host, Jeff Schweitzer, President and CEO of Univest Financial Corporation. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Schweitzer

Thank you, Drew, and good morning. And thank you to all of our listeners for joining us. Joining me on the call this morning is Mike Keim, our Chief Operating Officer and President of Univest Bank and Trust; and Brian Richardson, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone of the forward-looking statements disclaimer. Please be advised that during the course of this conference call, management may make forward-looking statements that express management's intentions, beliefs, or expectations within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Univest's actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. I will refer you to the forward-looking cautionary statements in our earnings release and in our SEC filings. Hopefully, everyone had a chance to review our earnings release from yesterday. If not, it can be found on our website at univest.net under the Investor Relations tab.

We reported net income of $16.3 million during the fourth quarter or $0.55 per share. During the quarter, we started to see stabilization in the shift in the mix of deposits along with the cost of deposits. While loans declined slightly during the quarter due to the higher rate environment, the payoff of some potential problem credits and a general slowdown in economic activity, we continue to have solid pipelines as we enter 2024.

We continue to focus on full relationship customers and prospects. Brian will provide additional guidance for 2024 in his comments. Before I pass it over to Brian, I'd just like to thank the entire Univest family for the great work that they do every day and their continued efforts serving our customers, our communities, and each other.

I'll now turn it over to Brian for further discussion on our results.