United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 24, 2024 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Lynn Harton - Chairman and CEO
Jefferson Harralson - CFO
Rich Bradshaw - President and Chief Banking Officer
Rob Edwards - CRO
Conference Call Participants
Catherine Mealor - KBW
Michael Rose - Raymond James
Stephen Scouten - Piper Sandler
Russell Gunther - Stephens
Gary Tenner - D.A. Davidson
Christopher Marinac - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC
David Bishop - Hovde Group
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to United Community Bank's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. Hosting the call today are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lynn Harton; Chief Financial Officer, Jefferson Harralson; President and Chief Banking Officer, Rich Bradshaw; and Chief Risk Officer, Rob Edwards.
United's presentation today includes references to operating earnings, pre-tax, pre-credit earnings and other non-GAAP financial information. For these non-GAAP financial measures, United has provided a reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measure in the Financial Highlights section of the earnings release, as well as at the end of the investor presentation. Both are included on the website at ucbi.com. Copies of the first quarter's earnings release and investor presentation were filed this morning on Form 8-K with the SEC and a replay of this call will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at ucbi.com.
Please be aware that during this call, forward-looking statements may be made by representatives of United. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of risks and uncertainties described on Pages 5 and 6 of the company's 2023 Form 10-K, as well as other information provided by the company in its filings with the SEC and included on its website.
At this time, I will turn the call over to Lynn Harton.
Lynn Harton
Well, good morning and thank you all for joining our call today.
We're pleased to report solid performance this quarter. Operating earnings per share came in at $0.52, down $0.01 from last quarter, in part due to seasonally higher employment costs. Our operating return on assets was 93 basis points, up slightly from 92 basis points last quarter.
As we've continued to work through changes in the interest rate environment, one of our focus areas naturally has been our net interest margin. We were pleased to see those efforts begin to pay off this quarter, with the margin holding steady up 1 basis point on a GAAP basis and up 2 basis points on a core basis, excluding loan accretion income. We continue to improve our loan and deposit pricing strategies to perform in a higher-for-longer rate environment.