DEFIANCE, Ohio, July 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SB Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBFG) (“SB Financial” or the “Company”), a diversified financial services company providing full-service community banking, mortgage banking, wealth management, private client and title insurance services today reported earnings for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

Second quarter 2023 highlights over prior-year, second quarter include:

• Net income of $3.1 million increased 8.5 percent with diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) of $0.44
• Adjusted for Mortgage Servicing Rights recapture (“OMSR”), net income is higher by 16.7 percent
• Noninterest expense of $10.3 million declined 4.3 percent
• Improved asset quality with nonperforming assets declining from 37 to 26 basis points

Six months ended June 30, 2023, highlights over prior-year six months include:

• Net income of $5.5 million, down 2.2 percent
• Adjusted for OMSR recapture, net income is higher by 15.5 percent
• Noninterest expense of $21.1 million declined 2.5 percent
  

Second quarter 2023 trailing twelve-month highlights include:

• Loan growth of $89.2 million, or 10.0 percent
• Deposit decline of $0.6 million, or 0.1 percent

“We were pleased with the positive momentum we experienced this quarter in what is a difficult and volatile operating environment for Community Banks,” said Mark A. Klein, Chairman, President, and CEO of SB Financial. “We had linked quarter growth in loans and mortgage originations and deposits were down just 3.5 percent. Liquidity concerns and deposit rate competition continued to be our most significant challenge as our funding beta’s exceeded our earning asset beta’s for the first time since the Fed rate increases began in March of 2022.  While margin compression consumed the narrative for the second quarter, on a positive note we did experience a further reduction in non-performing loans. Our nonperforming loan coverage ratio now stands in excess of 500 percent.”

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Consolidated Revenue

Total operating revenue, consisting of net interest income and noninterest income, was up from the linked quarter by 1.4 percent but less than the prior year quarter by 0.5 percent. Operating revenue continues to be impacted by much higher funding costs and the decline in mortgage banking revenue.

• Net interest income was down 4.8 percent from the linked quarter but up 2.5 percent from the prior year quarter.
• Net interest margin was flat compared to the prior year, as the increase in Earning Asset yields and balances has been offset by higher funding costs on deposits and wholesale borrowings.      
• Noninterest income was down 6.7 percent from the year ago quarter, due to lower mortgage and Title insurance volume and a reduction in the recapture of temporary servicing rights.      
  

Mortgage Loan Business

Mortgage loan originations for the second quarter of 2023 were $65.4 million, down $30.1 million, or 31.5 percent, from the prior year quarter. Total sales of originated loans experienced a slight decline compared to the prior year, at $47.9 million, down $2.0 million, or 4.0 percent.  

Net mortgage banking revenue, consisting of gains on the sale of mortgage loans and net loan servicing fees, was $1.6 million for the second quarter of 2023, down from $1.8 million for the prior year quarter. The mortgage servicing valuation adjustment for the second quarter of 2023 was a negative $0.02 million, compared to a positive adjustment of $0.2 million for the second quarter of 2022. The servicing portfolio at June 30, 2023, was $1.35 billion, which was down 1.2 percent compared to the prior year.

Mr. Klein noted, “Mortgage volume continued to be constrained by higher rates and reduced inventory in our markets. Compared to the linked quarter, we were pleased that originations were higher by $16.0 million, or 32.5 percent as we added new MLOs in several of our key markets.”  

Noninterest Income and Noninterest Expense

Noninterest income for the quarter declined, from the prior year quarter by 6.7 percent; however, when compared to the linked quarter, fee income was higher by 19.0 percent. Gain-on-sale from mortgage loans, was down just slightly from the prior year; however, the increase in sale volume above 73 percent in the quarter resulted in a nearly 80 percent increase in this metric over the linked quarter. Apart from Title Insurance, our remaining fee categories, are generally in line with revenue from both the linked and prior-year quarters.

For the second quarter of 2023, noninterest expense of $10.3 million was down from both the linked and prior year quarters by over 4 percent. Rightsizing of the mortgage business line has resulted in staffing levels lower by over 5 percent compared to the prior year.  

Mr. Klein stated, “Through the first half of the year, we have achieved positive operating leverage with expenses declining at nearly twice the rate of our revenue decline. When we exclude the non-core servicing rights recapture, revenue growth, year-to-date, is higher by 2.6 percent. We continue to examine all of our operations and resources as we look to manage expense levels into the second half of 2023.”

Balance Sheet

As of June 30, 2023, total assets were $1.34 billion, in line with the linked quarter, and slightly higher compared to the prior year. This increase was driven by higher loan balances, partially offset by reductions in cash and investment securities.   Total shareholders’ equity at June 30, 2023, was $117.7 million. Excluding the impact of the investment portfolio impairment, equity rose to $150.6 million, reflecting a 2.6 percent increase. During the quarter, we repurchased 91,260 shares of our Company stock, further demonstrating our commitment to enhancing shareholder value.

With our adoption of CECL on January 1^st, our Allowance for Credit Losses rose in the quarter to $15.8 million, up 14.4 percent compared to the prior year. In the quarter, we added $375 thousand to the reserve offset by just $22 thousand in net charge-offs.

The investment portfolio of $228.0 million, represented 17.0 percent of assets at June 30, 2023, and was down $38.2 million or 14.2 percent from the year-ago period. Total loans held for investment were $984.8 million at June 30, 2023, up $89.2 million, or 10.0 percent, from June 30, 2022. Residential originations have offset the decline in Commercial loan originations we are seeing in the majority of our markets.

Deposit balances of $1.07 billion at June 30, 2023, were level to the prior year, but experienced a decline of 3.5 percent from the linked quarter. The shift in the mix of our deposit funding has driven the margin compression that we are experiencing. Currently, time deposits and demand deposits comprise 22.4 and 36.3 percent of total deposits, respectively, compared to 13.3 and 40.9 percent for the prior year.  

Mr. Klein continued, “Loan growth continued in the quarter, although we are focused on reducing the reliance on our residential mortgage portfolio products to drive growth as we have a fairly broad base of high-level commercial leaders in our markets working to grow our commercial book. The challenge of funding our Company and maintaining our margins continued in the quarter. We still have access to significant additional liquidity and our level of uninsured deposits ended the quarter at 14.8 percent.”

Asset Quality

SB Financial reported nonperforming assets of $3.5 million as of June 30, 2023, down $1.2 million or 25.2 percent from the year-ago quarter. The coverage ratio of problem loans to the allowance for credit losses was at 542.8 percent at June 30, 2023, which was up nearly 200 basis points from the prior year due to the expansion of the allowance from the CECL adjustment of $1.4 million and our reduction in problem loans.

Webcast and Conference Call

The Company will hold the second quarter 2023 earnings conference call and webcast on July 28, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. EDT. Interested parties may access the conference call by dialing 1-888-338-9469. The webcast can be accessed at ir.yourstatebank.com. An audio replay of the call will be available on the Company’s website.

About SB Financial Group

Headquartered in Defiance, Ohio, SB Financial is a diversified financial services holding company for the State Bank & Trust Company (State Bank) and SBFG Title, LLC dba Peak Title (Peak Title). State Bank provides a full range of financial services for consumers and small businesses, including wealth management, private client services, mortgage banking and commercial and agricultural lending, operating through a total of 23 offices: 22 in nine Ohio counties and one in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and 23 ATMs. State Bank has six loan production offices located throughout the Tri-State region of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Peak Title provides title insurance and title opinions throughout the Tri-State region. SB Financial’s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market with the ticker symbol “SBFG”.

In May 2023, SB Financial was valued #163 on the American Banker Magazine’s list of top 200 publicly traded Community Bank and Thrifts based on three-year average return on equity.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements within this document, which are not statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the duration and scope of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States and the market areas in which SB Financial and its subsidiaries operate, including the impact to the state and local economies of prolonged shelter in place orders and the pandemic generally, risks and uncertainties inherent in the national and regional banking industry, changes in economic conditions in the market areas in which SB Financial and its subsidiaries operate, changes in policies by regulatory agencies, changes in accounting standards and policies, changes in tax laws, fluctuations in interest rates, demand for loans in the market areas in SB Financial and its subsidiaries operate, increases in FDIC insurance premiums, changes in the competitive environment, losses of significant customers, geopolitical events, the loss of key personnel and other risks identified in SB Financial’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and documents subsequently filed by SB Financial with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and SB Financial undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made, except as required by law. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to SB Financial or any person acting on its behalf are qualified by these cautionary statements.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains financial information determined by methods other than in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). Non-GAAP financial measures, specifically pre-tax, pre-provision income, tangible common equity, tangible assets, tangible book value per common share, tangible common equity to tangible assets, return on average tangible common equity, total interest income – FTE, net interest income – FTE and net interest margin – FTE are used by the Company’s management to measure the strength of its capital and analyze profitability, including its ability to generate earnings on tangible capital invested by its shareholders. In addition, the Company excludes the OMSR impairment from net income to report anon-GAAP adjusted net income level. Although management believes these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors by providing a greater understanding of its business, they should not be considered a substitute for financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP, nor are they necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies.