Five Star Bancorp Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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October 29, 2024

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the 5 Star Bancorp Third Quarter Earnings Webcast. Please note, this is a closed conference call, and you are encouraged to listen via the webcast. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity for those provided with a dialer number to ask questions. Before we get started, we would like to remind you that today's meeting will include some forward looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These forward looking statements relate to, among other things, current plans, expectations, events and industry trends that may affect the company's future operating results and financial position.

Operator

Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and future activities and results may differ materially from these expectations. For a more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the company's forward looking statements, please see the company's annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2023, and quarterly reports on Form 10 Q for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024 and June 30, 2024, and in particular, the information set forth in Item 1A, Risk Factors in those reports. Please refer to Slide 2 of the presentation, which includes disclaimers regarding forward looking statements, industry data, unaudited financial data and non GAAP financial information included in this presentation. Reconciliations of non GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP figures are included in the appendix to the presentation. Please note this event is being recorded.

Operator

At this time, I'd like to turn the presentation over to James Beckwith, 5 Star Bancorp President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you for joining us to review 5 Star Bancorp's financial results for the Q3 of 2024. Joining me today is Heather Luck, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our comments today will refer to the financial information that was included in the earnings announcement released yesterday. To obtain a copy of the release, please visit our website at 5starbank.com and click on the Investor Relations tab. Our organic growth story continued in the Q3 with the successful opening of our full service office in San Francisco's Financial District on September 3, 2024, allowing us to continue our momentum in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Speaker 1

We added 5 more seasoned professionals to support this expansion and also continue to add new core deposit accounts and relationships as seen in the increase of non wholesale deposits of $92,900,000 during the 3 months ended September 30, 2024. In the Q3, we maintained our ability to conservatively underwrite as evidenced by a 50% loan to value on commercial real estate, managed expenses with our 43.37 percent efficiency ratio and deliver value to our shareholders with our $0.20 per share dividend for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2024. Additionally, we were able to maintain our net interest margin which decreased by only 2 basis points in loans, total assets and deposits have grown since prior periods. Our pipeline continues to remain solid at the end of the Q3 of 2024 within verticals we have historically operated in as presented in the loan portfolio diversification slide. Loans held for investments increased during the quarter by $194,300,000 or 5.95 percent from the prior quarter primarily related to the purchase of loans within the consumer concentration of the loan portfolio representing $129,400,000 of the increase.

Speaker 1

Loan originations during the quarter were $333,800,000 while payoffs and paydowns were $40,700,000 dollars 98,800,000 respectively. Asset quality continues to remain strong. Non performing loans decreased to 0.05 percent of loans held for investment at period end compared to 0.06 at the end of the prior quarter. At the end of the 3rd quarter, the allowance for credit losses was 37,600,000 dollars We recorded a $2,800,000 provision for credit losses during the quarter reflecting loan growth and continued risk associated with general economic trends and forecast. The ratio of the allowance for credit losses to loans held for investment was 1.09% at quarter end.

Speaker 1

Loans designated as substandard or doubtful approximately totaled approximately $1,900,000 at the end of the quarter, which is unchanged from the end of the previous quarter. During the 3rd quarter, deposits increased by $250,300,000 or 7.95 percent as compared to the previous quarter. Non interest bearing deposits as a percent of total deposits at the end of the 3rd quarter increased slightly to 26.67 percent from 26.22 percent at the end of the previous quarter. As noted earlier, we are pleased we had net non wholesale deposit inflows for the 3 months ended September 30, 2024. Our ability to grow deposit accounts support our differentiated customer centric model that our customers trust and value.

Speaker 1

As seen through the mix of high dollar accounts and the duration of certain customer relationships,

Operator

we believe we have a reliable core deposit base.

Speaker 1

To offer more detail on our deposit composition, I want to highlight that deposit relationships totaling at least $5,000,000 constitutes 60.58 percent of total deposits and the average age on these accounts was approximately 9 years as of September 30, 2024. Local agency deposits accounted for 18.77 percent of deposits as of September 30, 2024. Overall deposit balances have increased when compared to the prior quarter. Wholesale deposits which we defined as broker deposits and public time deposits increased by $157,400,000 Non wholesale deposits increased by $92,900,000 driven by an $11,700,000 increase in non wholesale interest bearing deposits and a $81,200,000 increase in non interest bearing deposits. Cost of total deposits was 2 63 basis points during the quarter, an increase of 16 basis points from the previous quarter.

Speaker 1

We continue to be well capitalized with all capital ratios well above regulatory thresholds for the quarter. Our common equity Tier 1 ratio decreased from 11.27 percent to 10.93 percent between June 30, 24 and September 30, 2024. On October 17th, our Board declared a cash dividend of $0.20 per share on the company's voting common stock expected to be paid on November 12, 2024 to shareholders of record as of November 4, 2024. On that note, I will hand it over to Heather to discuss the results of operations. Heather?

Speaker 2

Thank you, James, and hello everyone. Net income for the quarter was $10,900,000 return on average assets was 1.18 percent and return on average equity was 11.31%. Average for the quarter was 5.98 percent, representing an increase of 15 basis points over the prior quarter. Our net interest margin was 3.37% for the quarter, while net interest margin for the prior quarter was 3.39%. As a result of changes in interest rates and other factors, our other comprehensive income was $2,500,000 during the 3 months ended September 30, 2024, as unrealized losses, net of tax effects, decreased on available for sale debt securities from $12,200,000 as of just June 30, 2024 to $9,700,000 as of September 30, 2024.

Speaker 2

Non interest income decreased to $1,400,000 in the 3rd quarter from $1,600,000 in the previous quarter. This is due primarily to a reduction in gains from loans sold during the 3 months ended September 30 compared to June 30, 2024. Non interest expense grew by $300,000 in the 3 months ended September 30 compared to 3 months ended June 30, primarily due to increases in salaries and employee benefits during the quarter. Now that we've discussed the overall results of operations, I will hand it back to James to provide some closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Heather. I want to thank everyone for joining us as we discuss 3rd quarter results. 5 Star Bank has a reputation built on trust, speed to serve and certainty of execution, which support our client success. Our financial performance is the result of a truly differentiated customer experience, which continues to power the demand for 5 Star Bank's relationship based services. We are very proud to have earned the trust of those we serve including our shareholders.

Speaker 1

As we move into the Q4 of 2024, we are confident in the company's resilience in any environment and remain focused on the future and our long term strategy. We will continue to execute on our organic growth and disciplined business practices which we believe will benefit our customers, employees, community and shareholders. We appreciate your time today. This concludes today's presentation. Now Heather and I will be happy to take any questions that you might have.

Operator

And our first question today comes from Woody Lay from KBW. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 3

Hey, thanks for taking my questions. Wanted to start on the non interest bearing deposit growth. As you mentioned in your opening comments, it was really impressive to see in the quarter. I was just curious, was that pretty granular across your customer base? And do you think those balances can continue to move higher from here?

Speaker 1

Let's see. We had one relationship that we've had for many years, probably 5 years that grew their balances decently, probably accounts for, I'm going to say 20% of that increase and everything else has been pretty granular.

Speaker 3

Or go ahead. Yes.

Speaker 1

We sense that we're hitting our stride somewhat with respect to growing our non interest bearing deposits pre DDA as we call them here. And I think that it's just a function of the number of accounts we've been opening as those balances build. And so we expect Q4 to see some increases there. Maybe not to the extent that we saw in the Q3, but certainly noticeable.

Speaker 3

Got it. Maybe shifting over to the loan side, I was just curious on what the purchase strategy is from here. Do you expect that to continue in the Q4 and into 'twenty five? And outside of the purchase strategies, just how does the pipeline look heading into the Q4?

Speaker 1

Sure. The purchase strategy was centered around loans that we purchased from Bankers Health Group BHG. And so we've capped the number of loans that we're going to carry on our balance sheet with BHG to $300,000,000 And so I think as of today we're there. I think we had maybe $5,000,000 $8,000,000 in October that we bought.

Speaker 2

Yes, at September 30, we were at $274,000,000

Speaker 1

Yes, so it's a little bit more than that. So, we've capped at 300,000,000 dollars and so what you're going to see from here on out will be some increase in Q4, but after that it's just going to be maintained at a steady balance of $300,000,000 Now, in terms of our pipeline, we've seen some nice increases here in the last couple of weeks. So, we expect loan growth in the Q4, Woody, to probably be in the mid single digit level. And so, we'll see. We've got some big deals that we're looking at, but we like where our pipeline is, our loan pipeline is right now across all of our verticals and geographies.

Speaker 3

That's helpful color. Just last, turning to the NIM, just any near term expectations with the recent 50 basis point cut and just how that could impact the NIM in the 4th quarter?

Speaker 1

Sure. So, we fundamentally financed our increase in our purchase loans or not our wholesale loan strategy with BHG with broker deposits and state California deposits. Now, the broker deposits in the state of California deposits, we've kept them very short, so they're on 3 month repricing intervals. So, over the next 3 to 6 months, we expect those yields that we have to pay, those rates to come down very consistently with any Fed moves. So, we kind of like that in terms of what it looks like in terms of what the cost of those deposits are.

Speaker 1

Probably won't see too much of an impact in Q4, but certainly in Q1 and Q2 you will of 2025.

Speaker 3

Got it. All right. Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 4

Sure.

Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Terrell from Stephens. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 5

Hey, good morning.

Speaker 3

Good morning.

Speaker 5

If I could just follow-up a little bit on the margin line of questioning. On the CD portfolio specifically, it was like $326,000,000 on average in the quarter at 5.08 percent cost. We obviously saw a pretty big build into the period end up at $490,000,000 or so, if I remember correctly. Do you have the CDs you're putting on during the quarter, do you have the weighted average cost you were putting those on at understanding that some of the broker and everything kind of reprises on a 3 month term?

Speaker 1

Yes, we don't have much CDs outside of our wholesale strategy. So we put on one large one with the state and that was at about 4 point we'll shy of 4.60.

Speaker 2

Yes, 4.60.

Speaker 1

And so, but as those CDs reprice, we'll see all the brokers reprice in Q4, but mostly in December.

Speaker 2

Yes. So, we've got 2.75 $1,000,000 of brokers that that will roll off in December. That's at a weighted average rate of 501.

Speaker 1

Yes. So depending upon what Fed does in November December, you could see a decline. At this point, we're planning to kind of re up those CDs, Andrew. So we expect pretty significant rate move on those.

Speaker 5

Yes. Okay. And then maybe to help us on the asset side as well, just to understand the purchase strategy, if the wholesale funding kind of put on during the Q3 was 4.6% territory, what was the marginal loan yield for the loan purchases just so we can think about kind of the net margin of the more kind of wholesaler purchase strategy?

Speaker 1

Sure. They were done at about 8.11.

Operator

8.11. Weighted. Weighted

Speaker 1

average, 8.11.

Speaker 5

Okay, great. I appreciate it. And then you said it's fixed?

Speaker 1

Yes, that was at a fixed rate. So we expect that margin to widen when our CDs reprice.

Speaker 5

Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And then just for the purchases overall, I think a lot you mentioned were Bankers Healthcare Group. Can you just discuss maybe the liquidity profile for these purchase pools?

Speaker 5

Are they liquid enough that you can kind of trade in and out of this portfolio similar to how you would a bond book? And the reason for kind of that specific question is just thinking about the next couple of years, if loan growth ramps in kind of the core business to the extent we saw back a couple of years ago? Just trying to think through the kind of liquidity dynamics there to contemplate outside of deposit growth at your source of funds?

Speaker 1

Well, we've been told that they're readily saleable to other folks in their network and they've got a pretty broad network. So we believe that we'd be able to execute any type of exit strategy should we need to be, we have to. But we don't expect that. I mean these are pretty quick amortizing loans. So the balances, if we didn't maintain our outstandings, they would pay off fairly quickly.

Speaker 1

They probably have an average life, I'm going to say 4 years, 4 to 5 years. So, but they are we can move them off our balance sheet to folks that are in the BHG network as we've been told. Now Andrew never done that, but we feel confident that we would be able to do that if we have to.

Speaker 5

Yes, understood. Okay. Yes, I just want to I know deposit growth is obviously fantastic this quarter, but just want to throw that in. I just want

Speaker 2

to reiterate though that the program for the BHGs are capped at $300,000,000 and so we're pretty close to that already. So just kind of want to make sure that you guys for your models know that that's a cap on that side.

Speaker 1

Yes, we're not going to do any more of it.

Speaker 5

For sure. Okay. I appreciate that. And then the last one for me, just you're up to I think the release said 24 employees in the Bay Area. It's obviously a huge increase in lift when you think about starting this expansion out kind of mid of last year.

Speaker 5

Just talk about maybe James, big picture, what the framework in the market looks like today from a talent standpoint? Do you feel like most of the dislocated talent has found a new home at this point? And then just specifically about kind of your pipeline and higher expectations for the year ahead?

Speaker 1

Sure. I think that the dynamics of the hiring opportunities have certainly changed from a general market perspective, but we've also changed too. Now we're a recognizable entity down in the Bay Area and people are seeking us out, whereas maybe that wasn't the case a year ago. And so, we've made a big splash. We've jumped in with both feet.

Speaker 1

So, people are beginning to know who we are. We're getting involved in the communities, various communities, but in San Francisco in particular. And so what our hiring pipeline looks like right now, we've got 3 people that we're eyeing that are all biz dev and then maybe 1 other or 2 other support folks. So the pipeline, hiring pipeline remains very good. Again, we're attracting some really high quality folks and not necessarily from the old First Republic, but other banks, whether it be Wells Fargo and some major banks and some also some community banks.

Speaker 1

So we're we like where we are, we like our profile and I think that we've done a good job of telling our story down there and the folks that we've hired are very recognizable and so that carries some cache with respect to future hires. So we're excited about what we see there.

Speaker 5

Yes, very good. Okay. Thank you all for taking the questions. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Gary Tenner from D. A. Davidson. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 4

Thanks. Good morning.

Speaker 5

Good morning.

Speaker 4

I wanted to ask about the deposit growth in the quarter. If you look at the non wholesale and public funds balances in the quarter, I think 75% or 80% of that growth would have been non transparent DDA. And it's a high class problem, so fantastic job. But I'm just curious about it just seems to be sort of a disconnect of having such a sizable amount of that of the non wholesale growth in non transparent. So could you talk to that a little bit?

Speaker 4

Obviously, a lot of success in the San Francisco market, etcetera, but just wondering about the mix of what's coming in the door on a core deposit basis?

Speaker 1

Sure. A lot of accounts that we've opened this year, They're very relationship based and as I mentioned previously, Gary, those balances are beginning to build the typical cycle of onboarding a new relationship. You open the accounts and then they start to populate and fund and that could take up to 6 to 9 months sometimes. And so what we're seeing right now is the evidence of that. So to the extent that we continue to bring on new relationships and we have a very robust deposit pipeline, we expect those balances to continue to grow.

Speaker 1

Now, I'm not sure if they're going to grow to the same extent they did in Q3 as we're looking out past Q4 and then into 2025, but we certainly expect them to continue to grow.

Speaker 4

I appreciate that, James. Are you seeing any within the, again, non wholesale interest bearing book, any sort of churn or customers using those balances to pay down lines or just kind of what the trend is there?

Speaker 1

Not noticeably. I think that we have our normal amount of payoffs in our CRE book, especially in our mobile home park book of business and RV park as folks take deals to agency. But that pipeline, the origination pipeline remains pretty robust. So if any use of liquidity to pay down loans, we're not seeing too much evidence of that.

Speaker 4

Great. And just one last question for me. If, Heather, you have the September 30 cost of deposit spot rate?

Speaker 2

266.

Speaker 4

266.

Speaker 5

Okay. Thank you. Yes.

Operator

And I'm showing no additional questions. We'll conclude today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference call back over to management for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Great. Thank you. 5 Star Bancorp is on a continued path of growth as we execute on strategic initiatives, which include growing our verticals and geographies while attracting and retaining talent. Our people, technology, operating efficiencies, conservative underwriting practices and its expense management have also contributed to the successes we share with our employees and shareholders. These successes include numerous ratings and awards.

Speaker 1

In addition to the numerous awards received in the first half of twenty twenty four, 5 Star Bancorp was included among Piper Sandler, Small All Star Class of 2024 and was also ranked number 5 by Bank Director Magazine's ranking banking study of the 2024 best U. S. Banks with assets less than $5,000,000,000 Bank Director Magazine's ranking banking study also ranked 5 Star Bancorp as the number 18 among the 20 24 Top 25 U. S. Banks.

Speaker 1

Our company leadership was recognized with the Sacramento Business Journal's 40 Under 40 Award. 5 Star Bank continues to be a driving force for economic development, a trusted resource for our customers and a committed advocate for our communities. We look forward to speaking with you again in January to discuss earnings for the Q4 of 2024. Have a great day and thank you for listening.

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's conference call. We do thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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Earnings Conference Call
Five Star Bancorp Q3 2024
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