Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Q2 2024 Results Conference Call July 24, 2024 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Will Holford - Director of Strategic Corporate Development
Malcolm Holland - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Terry Earley - Chief Financial Officer
Curtis Anderson - Executive Credit Officer

Conference Call Participants

Stephen Scouten - Piper Sandler
Michael Rose - Raymond James
Brett Rabatin - Hovde Group
Ahmad Hasan - D.A. Davidson

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Veritex Holdings Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this event will be recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to Will Holford with Veritex.

Will Holford

Thank you. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that this presentation may include forward-looking statements, and those statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual and anticipated results to differ. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement.

If you're logged into our webcast, please refer to our slide presentation, including our safe harbor statement beginning on Slide 2. For those on the phone, please note that the safe harbor statement and presentation are available on our website, veritexbank.com.

All comments made today are subject to our safe harbor statement. Some financial metrics discussed will be on a non-GAAP basis, which management believes better reflects the underlying core operating performance of the business. Please see the reconciliation of all discussed non-GAAP measures in our filed 8-K earnings release.

Joining me today are Malcolm Holland, our Chairman and CEO; Terry Earley, our Chief Financial Officer and Curtis Anderson our Chief Credit Officer.

I will now turn the call over to Malcolm.

Malcolm Holland

Morning, everyone and welcome to our second quarter earnings call. Our clear focus on repositioning our balance sheet continues with positive trends in virtually all categories. The second quarter we reported operating earnings of $28.3 million or $0.52 per share. All components of the P&L are showing positive trends with the exception of our government-guaranteed key business. We made some enhancements in this area to start and venture start producing results in the back half of the year and beyond. NIM is stabilizing and expenses today are better than initially budgeted.

Our balance sheet continues to transform as seen on slide 3, our loan deposit ratio, excluding mortgage warehouse, continues to decline and it sits below 86% and the dependences on wholesale funding has declined in 19%. Both of these metrics are down measurably over the last 12 months. Tangible book value continues to grow currently at $20.62 up $1.21 since June, 2023. Growth for the quarter was virtually Neil on both sides of the balance sheet as we continue to bolster our balance sheet and shift the mix of our liabilities with lower-cost funding. Although loan growth absent mortgage warehouse has been flat for the year, our pipelines are building in our small business and C&I areas. Although these areas are slower to move the growth needle, there are clients that provide full relationships with both deposits and fees. We anticipate loan growth for the back half of the year in the mid-single digits and anticipate deposit growth will be in the high single digits.