Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:GBCI) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 26, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Randy Chesler - President and CEO

Byron Pollan - Treasurer

Ron Copher - CFO

Tom Dolan - Chief Credit Administrator

Conference Call Participants

Matthew Clark - Piper Sandler

David Feaster - Raymond James

Kelly Mota - KBW

Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson

Brandon King - Truist

Andrew Terrell - Stephens

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Glacier Bancorp's Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Randy Chesler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Glacier Bancorp. Mr. Chesler, please begin.

Randy Chesler

All right. Thank you very much. Sorry for the technical difficulties. I think, we're ready to go. So, good morning, and thank you for joining us today. With me here in Kalispell this morning is Ron Copher, our Chief Financial Officer; Angela Dose, our Chief Accounting Officer; Byron Pollan, our Treasurer; Tom Dolan, our Chief Credit Administrator and Don Chery, our Chief Administrative Officer.

I'd like to point out that the discussion today is subject to the same forward-looking considerations found on Page 14 of our press release, and we encourage you to take a careful review of this section. We released our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings after the close of the market yesterday, and the Glacier Bancorp team wrapped up a challenging year with a very strong quarter.

We achieved earnings per share of $0.49, which increased $0.02 per share from the prior quarter. Net income was $54.3 million for the current quarter, an increase of $1.9 million, or 4%, from the prior quarter. Interest income of $273 million in the current quarter increased 8.6 million, or 3%, over the prior quarter.

Net interest margin on a tax equivalent basis was 2.56% versus 2.58% in the prior quarter, our smallest quarterly decrease this year. Total non-interest expense of $132 million for the current quarter, including a one-time $6 million FDIC special assessment, increased only $2.6 million, or 2%, over the prior quarter. The portfolio loan yield of 5.34% increased seven basis points from the prior quarter.

New loan production yields were 8.24%, up 32 basis points from the last quarter. Non-performing assets to bank assets decreased $16.7 million, or 39% from the prior quarter to 9% or nine basis points of assets. Net charge-offs to total loans ended the year at only six basis points.