Annualized linked-quarter loan growth of 18.5% for 1Q2022, 22.5% exclusive of PPP paydowns

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq/NGS: PNFP) reported net income per diluted common share of $1.65 for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, compared to net income per diluted common share of $1.61 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, an increase of approximately 2.5 percent. Items significantly impacting the comparability between the two periods were:

• PPP income in the first quarter of 2022 was $10.8 million, compared to $23.0 million in the first quarter of 2021. PPP loans at March 31, 2022 were $157.2 million, down from $371.1 million at Dec. 31, 2021 and $2.2 billion at March 31, 2021.

• Income from the firm’s sale of residential mortgage loans amounted to $4.1 million during the first quarter of 2022, compared to $13.7 million during the first quarter of 2021.

• On March 1, 2022, Pinnacle Bank acquired the remaining equity of JB&B Capital, LLC ("JB&B"), a commercial equipment leasing business in Knoxville, TN, in a cash transaction. Pinnacle had previously acquired 20 percent of JB&B's equity in 2017. As a result of the acquisition of JB&B, first quarter 2022 net income per diluted common share increased by $0.04 per share, which includes approximately $5.5 million of gains resulting from remeasurement of the previous investment offset in part by approximately $1.0 million of provision for credit losses recorded in accordance with CECL for the outstanding leases at JB&B. Lease balances attributable to the JB&B acquisition approximated $60.7 million at March 31, 2022.

"In our view, the economic landscape remains fragile," said M. Terry Turner, Pinnacle's president and chief executive officer. "Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the various economic sanctions enacted in response are likely to continue to weigh on our economy. The full impact of the ongoing supply chain issues, inflation, inverted yield curves and a potential recession are as yet unknown. Our response thus far has been to seek to protect tangible book value, to initiate a number of targeted loan portfolio reviews, including our COVID-impacted and commercial real estate portfolios, and to heighten our diligence on cybersecurity and fraud detection.

"Despite the uncertain economic environment, we are pleased with our first quarter performance and remain optimistic for 2022," Turner said. "As a result of our prolific hiring over the last few years, we had anticipated rapid loan growth this year based primarily on market share movement as the new revenue producers continue to consolidate their clients from their previous employers to us. Not only are we realizing outsized loan growth in our legacy Tennessee, Carolinas and Virginia markets, but we are also having great success in our market extensions to Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Birmingham, and Huntsville. The prolific hiring continued during the first quarter with 28 additional revenue producers. The loan growth we experienced during the first quarter, along with our current loan pipelines and our continued ability to attract new associates, have bolstered our confidence that we could meet or exceed mid-teen percentage loan growth for this year."

BALANCE SHEET GROWTH:

Total assets at March 31, 2022 were $39.4 billion, an increase of approximately $4.1 billion from March 31, 2021, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 11.6 percent. A further analysis of select balance sheet trends follows:

"During the first quarter, loan growth approximated an annualized rate of 18.5 percent when compared to balances at Dec. 31, 2021. Excluding the impact of PPP, loans increased at an annualized rate of 22.5 percent," Turner said. "As we have been highlighting for the past several quarters, replacing last year's PPP revenue and extraordinary volume of mortgage origination fees is primarily a function of new loan growth this year, and we are off to a tremendous start. Additionally, we were pleased with our core deposit growth in the first quarter of 14.7 percent and that our average deposit costs decreased during the quarter to 13 basis points."

PRE-TAX, PRE-PROVISION NET REVENUES (PPNR):

Pre-tax, pre-provision net revenues (PPNR) for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 were $160.3 million, a decrease of 1.4 percent from the $160.9 million recognized in the quarter ended March 31, 2021.

• Revenue per fully diluted common share was $4.52 for the three months ended March 31, 2022, compared to $4.47 for the fourth quarter of 2021 and $4.17 for the first quarter of 2021, an 8.4 percent year-over-year growth rate.
• Net interest income for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 was $239.5 million, compared to $238.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2021 and $222.9 million for the first quarter of 2021, a year-over-year growth rate of 7.5 percent.
  • Revenues from PPP loans approximated $10.8 million in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $15.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $23.0 million in the first quarter of 2021. At March 31, 2022, remaining unamortized fees for PPP loans were approximately $5.0 million.
  • Included in net interest income for the first quarter of 2022 was $1.7 million of discount accretion associated with fair value adjustments, compared to $2.2 million of discount accretion recognized in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $3.8 million in the first quarter of 2021. There remains $7.0 million of purchase accounting discount accretion as of March 31, 2022.
• Noninterest income for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 was $103.5 million, compared to $100.7 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, a linked-quarter annualized increase of 11.0 percent. Compared to $92.7 million for the first quarter of 2021, noninterest income grew 11.6 percent.
  • Wealth management revenues, which include investment, trust and insurance services, were $20.7 million for the first quarter of 2022, compared to $19.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, a linked-quarter annualized increase of 28.2 percent. Compared to $16.1 million for the first quarter of 2021, wealth management revenues were up 28.5 percent.
  • First quarter 2022 gains from investments in joint ventures and other funds was $1.7 million, compared to $3.4 million in the first quarter of 2021 and $4.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.
  • Service charges on deposit accounts were $11.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, compared to $12.7 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021 and $8.3 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. Fluctuations in these accounts are directly correlated with transaction volume and include NSF fees, analysis fees and check card interchange revenues.
  • Income from the firm's investment in BHG was $33.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, up from $30.8 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021 and $29.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.
  • Other noninterest income was $34.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, compared to $33.2 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021 and $25.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, a linked-quarter annualized increase of 10.4 percent and year-over-year growth of 32.8 percent, respectively. The year-over-year growth was primarily impacted by the $5.5 million gain on remeasurement of our investment in JB&B.
• Noninterest expense for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 was $182.7 million, compared to $170.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $154.7 million in the first quarter of 2021, reflecting a linked-quarter annualized growth rate of 28.7 percent and a year-over-year increase of 18.1 percent.
  • Salaries and employee benefits were $121.9 million in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $110.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $102.7 million in the first quarter of 2021, reflecting a linked-quarter annualized growth rate of 43.0 percent and a year-over-year increase of 18.6 percent. Total full-time equivalent associates amounted to 2,988 associates at March 31, 2022, compared to 2,621 full-time equivalent associates at March 31, 2021, an increase of 14.0 percent.
  • Noninterest expense categories, other than salaries and employee benefits, were $60.8 million in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $60.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $52.0 million in the first quarter of 2021, reflecting a linked-quarter annualized growth rate of less than 1 percent and a year-over-year increase of 17.0 percent.

"We continue to highlight PPNR and our efforts to grow PPNR consistently," said Harold R. Carpenter, Pinnacle’s chief financial officer. "PPNR was flattish compared to last year’s first quarter, but given the headwinds of reduced PPP revenues and reduced revenues from our residential mortgage business, we are pleased with our first quarter PPNR results. In addition to our anticipated loan growth this year, we believe that BHG's performance will result in at least 20 percent noninterest income growth in 2022 and that our wealth management businesses will also have a strong year given market volatility and several significant hires that were accomplished in 2021. As to expenses, compensation costs increased nearly 19 percent over last year, due primarily to increased headcount, annual merit raises and seasonal payroll taxes. We are optimistic that our hiring model will continue to provide us even more opportunities to add revenue producers this year. As a result, including the impact of inflation and the addition of JB&B on our expense base, we believe our noninterest expenses for 2022 will approximate mid-teen percentage increase over 2021 noninterest expense.

"We all appreciated that growing PPNR in 2022 would be challenging for the entire banking industry. We believe our loan growth momentum going into the second quarter is very strong, and assuming rates continue to increase and eliminate the impact of a larger percentage of our loan floors, not only should our revenue growth accelerate, but our margins should begin to expand as well."

PROFITABILITY:

• Net interest margin was 2.89 percent for the first quarter of 2022, compared to 2.96 percent for the fourth quarter of 2021 and 3.02 percent for the first quarter of 2021.
  • Impacting the firm’s net interest margin in the first quarter of 2022 and first and fourth quarters of 2021 were both PPP loans and the firm’s decision early in the pandemic to maintain additional on-balance sheet liquidity. The firm estimates its first quarter 2022 and fourth quarter 2021 net interest margin was negatively impacted by approximately 29 and 25 basis points, respectively, as a result of PPP loans and additional liquidity, compared to approximately 27 basis points for the first quarter 2021.
• During the quarter ended March 31, 2022, book value decreased by $0.59 per share and tangible book value decreased by $0.90 per share when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, due in large part to approximately $132.8 million decrease in the net unrealized fair value of the firm's available-for-sale investment securities portfolio caused by rising rates. Additionally, during the first quarter, the firm transferred approximately $1.1 billion of available-for-sale securities to held-to-maturity.

"We remain pleased with our profitability metrics for the first quarter," Carpenter said. "There is much discussion about the rate environment and its impact on our balance sheet sensitivity going forward. We believe our balance sheet is positioned more conservatively than most given our disciplined adherence to loan floors over the last few years. Over the course of the last few weeks and since the most recent increase in Fed funds rates, our loan yields have expanded by almost 6 basis points, while our total deposit costs have increased approximately 2 basis points. Thus far, and we are very early in the up-rate cycle, we are pleased with how our relationship managers are working with their clients and setting expectations for the next several quarters.

"Additionally, the impact of increased rates on tangible book value has garnered attention. Our tangible book value per share decreased by 2.1 percent this quarter, primarily due to the impact of rising rates on accumulated other comprehensive income. Early in the first quarter of 2022, we transferred approximately $1.1 billion of available-for-sale securities to held-to-maturity to help counter the impact of rising rates on tangible equity. Tangible book value per share is a key initiative of ours, so we will continue to position our firm to grow tangible book value over the long term."

MAINTAINING A STRONG BALANCE SHEET:

• Provision for credit losses was $2.7 million in the first quarter of 2022 and the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $7.2 million in the first quarter of 2021. Net charge-offs were $3.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, compared to $8.1 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021 and $11.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.
• Nonperforming assets were $35.1 million at March 31, 2022, compared to $40.1 million at Dec. 31, 2021 and $82.8 million at March 31, 2021. The ratio of the allowance for credit losses to nonperforming loans at March 31, 2022 was 982.9 percent, compared to 833.8 percent at Dec. 31, 2021 and 389.4 percent at March 31, 2021.
• Classified assets were $137.0 million at March 31, 2022, compared to $151.3 million at Dec. 31, 2021 and $244.9 million at March 31, 2021.

"Our credit performance has been strong for many years, and this was even more evident in the first quarter," Carpenter said. "Several of our loan credit metrics are at the lowest point they have been at in many years. During the first quarter, our allowance for credit losses to total loans (excluding PPP loans) (ACL) decreased from 1.14 percent at year end 2021 to 1.07 percent at March 31, 2022. We believe that continued reductions in our ACL are possible through most of 2022."

WEBCAST AND CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION

Pinnacle will host a webcast and conference call at 8:30 a.m. CT on April 19, 2022, to discuss first quarter 2022 results and other matters. To access the call for audio only, please call 1-877-602-7944. For the presentation and streaming audio, please access the webcast on the investor relations page of Pinnacle's website at www.pnfp.com.

For those unable to participate in the webcast, it will be archived on the investor relations page of Pinnacle's website at www.pnfp.com for 90 days following the presentation.

Pinnacle Financial Partners provides a full range of banking, investment, trust, mortgage and insurance products and services designed for businesses and their owners and individuals interested in a comprehensive relationship with their financial institution. The firm is the No. 1 bank in the Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin MSA, according to 2021 deposit data from the FDIC, is listed by Forbes among the top 25 banks in the nation and earned a spot on the 2022 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For® in the U.S., its sixth consecutive appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For nine years in a row and No. 1 among banks with more than $11 billion in assets in 2021.

Pinnacle owns a 49 percent interest in Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG), which provides innovative, hassle-free financial solutions to healthcare practitioners and other licensed professionals. Great Place to Work and FORTUNE ranked BHG No. 4 on its 2021 list of Best Workplaces in New York State in the small/medium business category.

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $39.4 billion in assets as of March 31, 2022. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 15 primarily urban markets across the Southeast.

Additional information concerning Pinnacle, which is included in the Nasdaq Financial-100 Index, can be accessed at www.pnfp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in this press release, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The words "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "may," "should," "plan," "believe," "seek," "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but other statements not based on historical information may also be considered forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the statements, including, but not limited to: (i) deterioration in the financial condition of borrowers of Pinnacle Bank and its subsidiaries or BHG resulting in significant increases in loan losses and provisions for those losses and, in the case of BHG, substitutions; (ii) the effects of new outbreaks of COVID-19, including actions taken by governmental officials to curb the spread of the virus, and the resulting impact on general economic and financial market conditions and on Pinnacle Financial's and its customers' business, results of operations, asset quality and financial condition; (iii) further public acceptance of the booster shots of the vaccines that were developed against the virus as well as the decisions of governmental agencies with respect to vaccines including recommendations related to booster shots and requirements that seek to mandate that individuals receive or employers require that their employees receive the vaccine; (iv) those vaccines' efficacy against the virus, including new variants; (v) fluctuations or differences in interest rates on loans or deposits from those that Pinnacle Financial is modeling or anticipating, including as a result of Pinnacle Bank's inability to better match deposit rates with the changes in the short-term rate environment, or that affect the yield curve; (vi) the inability of Pinnacle Financial, or entities in which it has significant investments, like BHG, to maintain the long-term historical growth rate of its, or such entities', loan portfolio; (vii) changes in loan underwriting, credit review or loss reserve policies associated with economic conditions, examination conclusions, or regulatory developments; (viii) effectiveness of Pinnacle Financial's asset management activities in improving, resolving or liquidating lower-quality assets; (ix) the impact of competition with other financial institutions, including pricing pressures and the resulting impact on Pinnacle Financial’s results, including as a result of compression to net interest margin; (x) adverse conditions in the national or local economies including in Pinnacle Financial's markets throughout Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia, particularly in commercial and residential real estate markets, including the negative impact of inflationary pressures on our customers and their businesses; (xi) the results of regulatory examinations; (xii) Pinnacle Financial's ability to identify potential candidates for, consummate, and achieve synergies from, potential future acquisitions; (xiii) difficulties and delays in integrating acquired businesses or fully realizing costs savings and other benefits from acquisitions; (xiv) BHG's ability to profitably grow its business and successfully execute on its business plans; (xv) risks of expansion into new geographic or product markets; (xvi) the ability to grow and retain low-cost core deposits and retain large, uninsured deposits, including during times when Pinnacle Bank is seeking to lower rates it pays on deposits; (xvii) any matter that would cause Pinnacle Financial to conclude that there was impairment of any asset, including goodwill or other intangible assets; (xviii) the ineffectiveness of Pinnacle Bank's hedging strategies, or the unexpected counterparty failure or hedge failure of the underlying hedges; (xix) reduced ability to attract additional financial advisors (or failure of such advisors to cause their clients to switch to Pinnacle Bank), to retain financial advisors (including as a result of the competitive environment for associates) or otherwise to attract customers from other financial institutions; (xx) deterioration in the valuation of other real estate owned and increased expenses associated therewith; (xxi) inability to comply with regulatory capital requirements, including those resulting from changes to capital calculation methodologies, required capital maintenance levels or regulatory requests or directives, particularly if Pinnacle Bank's level of applicable commercial real estate loans were to exceed percentage levels of total capital in guidelines recommended by its regulators; (xxii) approval of the declaration of any dividend by Pinnacle Financial's board of directors; (xxiii) the vulnerability of Pinnacle Bank's network and online banking portals, and the systems of parties with whom Pinnacle Bank contracts, to unauthorized access, computer viruses, phishing schemes, spam attacks, human error, natural disasters, power loss and other security breaches; (xxiv) the possibility of increased compliance and operational costs as a result of increased regulatory oversight (including by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), including oversight of companies in which Pinnacle Financial or Pinnacle Bank have significant investments, like BHG, and the development of additional banking products for Pinnacle Bank's corporate and consumer clients; (xxv) the risks associated with Pinnacle Financial and Pinnacle Bank being a minority investor in BHG, including the risk that the owners of a majority of the equity interests in BHG decide to sell the company or all or a portion of their ownership interests in BHG (triggering a similar sale by Pinnacle Financial and Pinnacle Bank) if not prohibited from doing so by Pinnacle Financial or Pinnacle Bank; (xxvi) changes in state and federal legislation, regulations or policies applicable to banks and other financial service providers, like BHG, including regulatory or legislative developments; (xxvii) fluctuations in the valuations of Pinnacle Financial's equity investments and the ultimate success of such investments; (xxiii) the availability of and access to capital; (xxix) adverse results (including costs, fines, reputational harm, inability to obtain necessary approvals and/or other negative effects) from current or future litigation, regulatory examinations or other legal and/or regulatory actions, including as a result of Pinnacle Bank's participation in and execution of government programs related to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (xxx) general competitive, economic, political and market conditions. Additional factors which could affect the forward looking statements can be found in Pinnacle Financial's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC and available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. Pinnacle Financial disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, which speak only as of the date hereof, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Non-GAAP Financial Matters

This release contains certain non-GAAP financial measures, including, without limitation, earnings per diluted common share, PPNR, efficiency ratio and the ratio of noninterest expense to average assets, excluding in certain instances the impact of expenses related to other real estate owned, gains or losses on sale of investment securities, FHLB restructuring charges, hedge termination charges and other matters for the accounting periods presented. This release also includes non-GAAP financial measures which exclude the impact of loans originated under the PPP. This release may also contain certain other non-GAAP capital ratios and performance measures that exclude the impact of goodwill and core deposit intangibles associated with Pinnacle Financial's acquisitions of BNC, Avenue Bank, Magna Bank, CapitalMark Bank & Trust, Mid-America Bancshares, Inc., Cavalry Bancorp, Inc. and other acquisitions which collectively are less material to the non-GAAP measure as well as the impact of Pinnacle Financial's Series B Preferred Stock. The presentation of the non-GAAP financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for any measure prepared in accordance with GAAP. Because non-GAAP financial measures presented in this release are not measurements determined in accordance with GAAP and are susceptible to varying calculations, these non-GAAP financial measures, as presented, may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures presented by other companies.

Pinnacle Financial believes that these non-GAAP financial measures facilitate making period-to-period comparisons and are meaningful indications of its operating performance. In addition, because intangible assets such as goodwill and the core deposit intangible, and the other items excluded each vary extensively from company to company, Pinnacle Financial believes that the presentation of this information allows investors to more easily compare Pinnacle Financial's results to the results of other companies. Pinnacle Financial's management utilizes this non-GAAP financial information to compare Pinnacle Financial's operating performance for 2022 versus certain periods in 2021 and to internally prepared projections.