NASDAQ:NWBI Northwest Bancshares Q4 2024 Earnings Report $81.64 +3.55 (+4.54%) As of 10:40 AM Eastern This is a fair market value price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Seagate Technology EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.27Consensus EPS $0.26Beat/MissBeat by +$0.01One Year Ago EPS$0.24Seagate Technology Revenue ResultsActual RevenueN/AExpected Revenue$141.53 millionBeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/ASeagate Technology Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2024Date1/24/2025TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateFriday, January 24, 2025Conference Call Time10:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsBelden's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 1, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 8:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Capital Properties Q4 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJanuary 24, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Northwest Bancshares' 4th Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. This session is being recorded and a playback will be available on our Investor Relations website. All participants are currently in listen only mode. Towards the end of today's call, we will open the floor for a question and answer session. Operator00:00:23Now, I would like to introduce Michael Perry, who recently joined NorthWest as Managing Director of Corporate Strategy and Development and Investor Relations. Michael PerryHead of Corporate Development & Strategy at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:00:38Good morning, everyone, and thank you, operator. Welcome to Northwest Bancshares' 4th quarter 2024 earnings call. It's great to be here. Joining me today are Lou Torshio, President and CEO of Northwest Bancshares Doug Shosser, our Chief Financial Officer Sean Morrow, our Treasurer and T. K. Michael PerryHead of Corporate Development & Strategy at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:00:56Creel, our Chief Credit Officer. During this call, we will refer to information included in the supplemental earnings release presentation, which is available on our Investor Relations website. If you'd like to read our forward looking and other related disclosures, you can find them on Slide 2. Thank you. And now I'll hand it over to Lou. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:01:17Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us to discuss our quarterly results. I'm pleased to report that we delivered solid returns in the Q4 and we're happy with our core financial performance, which Doug will cover momentarily. In particular, last quarter, we saw significant improvement in our net interest margin as well as in our efficiency ratio. This continues to demonstrate that we are delivering on our commitment to sustainable growth. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:01:45Thanks to our company wide focus on deposit gathering while maintaining near best in class cost of funds, we continue to maintain a stable and strong funding base. In addition, we're able to reduce classified loans, helping us further eliminate risk from the balance sheet. All these results can be attributed to the talent, hard work and thought put forth each day by the members of our Northwest team. I want to thank them for their continued dedication to our company's success as well as their focus on our customers and communities. As we have reported, at Northwest, we are steadfast in our commitment to responsible growth, both organically and through acquisition. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:02:26With that, I'm happy to report that last quarter we announced that we entered into an agreement to acquire Penns Woods Bancorp. This transaction is expected to be completed sometime in Q3 of this year. This merger is Northwest's largest to date and marks another milestone in our long term strategy. It further connects our Pennsylvania franchise and will make us one of the top 100 largest banks in the nation. Finally, as we have for the previous 120 quarters, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I'm pleased to declare a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share to shareholders of record as of February 3, 2025. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:03:06Now it's my pleasure to introduce Doug Schosser, our Chief Financial Officer, who will take us through our financial results. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:03:14Thank you, Lou, and good morning, everyone. Before we dive into today's presentation, I'd like to comment on the addition of Michael Perry. In addition to helping us facilitate our M and A strategy, Michael will also lead our company's strategic planning process and our Investor Relations function, serving as a primary point of contact to the investment community. We're really excited to add Michael and his extensive knowledge and experience to the Northwest team. Now let's begin on Page 4 of the earnings presentation, where I'll highlight Northwest financial results for the Q4 of 2024. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:03:45We reported a net income of $33,000,000 or $0.26 per diluted share. Our net interest margin expanded by 13 basis points this quarter to 3.42 percent, aided partially by an interest recovery on a non accrual loan, which added 6 basis points to that margin. We continue to see our margin increase due to our continued pricing discipline on our deposit portfolio and our focus on appropriate pricing on our originated loans supported by a more favorable rate environment. Compared to the same quarter last year, our loan portfolio balances were essentially flat, but we do see improvement in our mix as commercial loans increased and the portfolio becomes more commercially weighted. Deposit balances grew by 2% compared to the 4th quarter a year ago and cost of funds decreased even further as we saw volumes in the higher yielding savings products decline. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:04:35Non interest income increased $12,000,000 for the quarter, which includes a $6,000,000 gain in the sale of the last tranche of our Visabee shares and a $4,000,000 gain related to a low income housing tax credit investment. Non interest expense increased by 5% or approximately $3,000,000 from the 3rd quarter. Credit quality remains strong with overall allowance coverage decreasing to 1.04% of loans from 1.11% last quarter and a year ago. This can be attributed in part to the de risking actions taken within the quarter, including the sale and transfer of certain loans from our books. Finally, our capital position remains strong with an estimated Tier 1 capital to risk weighted assets of 13.8% on December 31 estimated. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:05:22Now, let's delve into additional details. On Page 5, you'll see our commercial industrial loans grew by 6.2% since last quarter and 23.5% year over year, while residential mortgages declined by 6.6% since last year. The shift underscores our focus on our commercial banking transformation. Our commercial real estate portfolio shrank by 0.4% since last quarter, reflecting a more desirable loan mix with a higher share of C and I compared to CRE. Our loan yields remained steady this quarter at 5.6%. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:05:54Moving to Page 6, deposits remained strong through the end of 2024, having grown 2% versus the end of 2023. During the last quarter, we recognized the benefits of lower short term interest rates with a 10 basis point decrease in our cost of funds. Most deposit growth occurred in the interest bearing demand products, while volumes in higher cost and higher yield savings products continued to slow. The current cost of deposits stands at 1.68%, again down 10 basis points from the 3rd quarter and still near best in class relative to our peers. On Page 7, we cover the net interest margin, which now stands at 3.42%, up from 3.33% last quarter. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:06:35Included in the 4th quarter results was an interest recovery on a non accrual loan that was paid off in full. This added 6 basis points to our margin in the quarter. A more normalized net interest margin in the 4th quarter would be about 3.36%. Fully tax equivalent net interest income grew by approximately 4% from $112,000,000 last quarter to $115,000,000 this quarter. This marks our 2nd consecutive quarter of net interest income growth, reflecting reduced borrowings, higher loan yields and a reduction in our cost of funds. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:07:07We ended the quarter with a cost of funds of 2.27%, a significant improvement from the last quarter. We have included some additional information on the margin on the next few slides. Now moving to Slide 10, non interest income increased $12,200,000 from the previous quarter, driven by an increase in other operating income that included the sale of those vis a vis shares and the low income housing tax credit I mentioned earlier. Compared to the year ago quarter, we saw an $11,000,000 increase in non interest income as a result of our continued growth in trust income, higher gains on sale of FBA loans and BOLI income, partially offset by lower gains on the sale of REO properties and a prior gain on sale of non SBA loans. Slide 11 details reflecting our continued focus on managing expenses without impacting core operations or sacrificing customer service. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:08:05Regarding credit quality on Page 12, our allowance to loans coverage decreased to 1.04% with net charge offs recorded at 87 basis points, including the impacts of our de risking activities taken within the quarter. If we exclude those impacts, our charge offs would be just 35 basis points. Page 13 shows that overall credit performance remains strong with non performing assets holding steady at 0.54%, while 30 day loan delinquency saw a slight increase to 90 basis points, classified loans decreased to 2.44% of total loans and our coverage ratio on non performing loans increased to 188% from 162% recorded in the 3rd quarter. Slide 14 highlights our commercial loan concentration showcasing a diverse portfolio. Strong underwriting has helped us avoid many CRE specific issues and we have minimal exposure to large metro office or rent controlled markets. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:09:03With the success of 2024, we have entered 2025 with significant momentum. I'd like to review our 2025 guidance, which can be found on Slide 16. We will still continue to focus on responsible and profitable loan growth in the commercial space, particularly C and I lending. We anticipate low single digit loan and deposit growth. We'll manage deposit costs while balancing client expectations and market preferences, allowing for continued modest net interest margin expansion. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:09:31We expect non interest income to be in the range of $124,000,000 to $129,000,000 for the full year. We will keep expense growth in the low single digits in 2025 as we shift our focus to creating positive operating leverage and balance expense growth in our long term investments. Both our tax rate and net charge offs are expected to normalize in 2025 as our net charge offs remain within our normalized range of 25 to 35 basis points and our tax rate will remain unchanged. Our guidance excludes any impacts from the recently announced acquisition of PennzWoods. On behalf of the entire leadership team and the Board of Directors, thank you for joining our call this morning. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:10:10I will now turn the call over to the operator, who will facilitate the live Q and A session. Operator00:10:33Your first question comes from the line of Tim Switzer with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:10:42Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:10:46Good morning, Tim. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:10:46Good morning, Tim. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:10:49We appreciate the detailed guide you provided in the slide deck here. Can you clarify real quick for the non interest income outlook, does that also exclude the impact of Penns Woods? And what's driving that growth there? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:11:07Yes. All of the guidance we're providing excludes the impact from Pennswoods and we are focused on driving better fee income performance and more consistent fee income performance strategically within the firm. So that's an expectation that we'll be able to generate that type of activity through the course of the year. I think we also provided more of a numerical guide only because we had so many things rolling through fee income this year that were a little bit unique like the securities restructure that we wanted to be transparent with where we were targeting fee income. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:11:42Yes, I know, it's super helpful. I appreciate you doing that. And if we think about the NII outlook with Pinswood, the rate movements have been pretty extreme over the last month or so. Can you talk about, I guess, first maybe how that's changed the expected tangible book value dilution? And then what's the expected purchase accounting as of most recently with the change in the yield curve? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:12:13Yes. We're not intending to provide updated guidance on the Pensoads acquisition until we get much closer to the closing date, because as you know, all of that will constantly change with our stock with changes in our stock price. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:12:28Okay. And the last question I have is, after cleaning up some of the credit book here, can you give us an update on like what's remaining in the healthcare portfolio? What the credit quality looks like? And then, are you seeing any other areas outside of that book that you're more cautious about or anything you're seeing in maybe the consumer portfolio? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:12:53Yes. So I think we dealt with most of the stress that we saw in the long term healthcare portfolio with these transactions. I will remind everyone, we moved some of the transactions, some of the credits are in held for sale. We would expect to execute a transaction to get those fully off the books over the course of the Q1. So we don't have any concerns in any particular sectors in the rest of the book and feel like we're entering the year in a pretty stable position. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:13:24We also tried to provide that normalized charge off number just to show that absent some of those de risking transactions, we would have been within the normalized range that we were projecting. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:13:37Okay, great. Thank you, guys. Operator00:13:41Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Tanayo with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:13:51Thank you. Good morning guys. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:13:51Good Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:13:53morning. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:13:55So I guess my first question just on the loan growth side. You talked about I think I heard low single digits for the year. You've had strong momentum certainly on the commercial side. Maybe if you could just talk about what you're seeing in terms of momentum in the commercial side, if that's still strong and then really the driver of the net loan growth number is reductions in CRE or other portfolios, just how you're thinking about it kind of segmented out a little bit? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:14:28Yes. So we are looking at decent pipeline strength in our pipelines right now for commercial. So we feel that there's going to be a more constructive environment in 2025 as all of the different changes in administration and all of that settles down a little bit. So we're thinking that that is going to be a net positive for us. We also will take advantage of opportunities to grow consumer loans when those opportunities present themselves. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:14:57So in general, we're going to try to we're going to continue to focus obviously on commercial. We also guided for some expense growth this year. We will allow for some additional hiring in the commercial verticals as well just to continue to develop the build out in commercial that we've talked about. So again, I think I would generally say just looking for a more balanced overall approach and when we have the opportunity to generate good returns either in the consumer portfolios or the commercial portfolios next year, we'll take advantage of them and we expect some of that business to be available for us. So that's reflective of the overall guide of some modest balance sheet growth next year. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:15:36Got it. That makes sense. Do you think it may be a little bit slower than what it can be on a total loan growth basis next year and then you could potentially end the year a little bit faster into going into 'twenty six moving towards more of a normalized loan growth rate maybe in the mid or a little bit above that percentage growth percentage rate? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:03Yes. I mean, again, there's fluctuations that you have to deal with all along the way, right? Like all Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:07of these weather events are certainly Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:07going to slow down, for example, the car sale market, right. So when we have opportunities to take advantage, we will, but we can't accommodate exactly when the growth will come. It will be there when the market allows it to be. We're still focused as we've been on making sure that we get good pricing and good terms on both consumer and commercial loans. And when those are there, we're going to take advantage of them and do them. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:32But we are really working on maintaining the loan yields and improving the overall margin by making sure that we're not just out taking significant levels of growth at rates that aren't going to produce a stable and growing margin. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:47Hey, Danny, it's Lou. I would just add that the strategy is intact, right? So we're going to have the maturation of the verticals that we've discussed on prior calls and prior meetings, as well as we have a renewed focus on the what we call the core franchise middle market, lower middle market in the 4 states that we have retail presence. And so to your point about while it may be a slower start to the year, we're looking to pick up steam in the latter part of the year a little bit as well as we have a continued focus on deposit gathering in our commercial franchise. And so that will become more evident as we move along through the year as well. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:17:38And as Doug pointed out, it's not that we're completely focused on commercial. So notwithstanding we have these mortgages on the balance sheet that really are low rate and long that we're running off. We'll have some opportunities in the consumer segment. And so we'll look for balanced growth in that area as well. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:18:07Terrific. But thanks for all that color. I guess just one last one, maybe on the securities book. I'm just looking at your Slide 9 here on that. You've got the direct duration of 5 to 4 years. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:18:22So I'm just curious kind of what's rolling off this year where you might see some benefit in terms of the margin in 2025? Obviously that book remains a little bit of a drag on the NIM overall from a dollar's perspective. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:18:39Yes, I can turn it over to Sean if he has any specifics he wants to highlight on things that are rolling off. I mean, we are reinvesting cash flows into higher yielding securities. So that will continue to help drag that mark or that return up over time. If there is an opportunity over the course of the year to consider a balance sheet investment securities reposition, we would probably take advantage of that. But again, that's not a core focus of ours and it would be something that would be opportunistic versus something that would be that is in part of our strategies next year. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:19:13So as we did last time, if we get closer to executing one of those, we have the opportunity and we'll certainly talk a little bit about it in advance. But I would say generally speaking, we're looking at maintaining the size and strength of that portfolio. And as we continue to get positive cash flows from it, we'll obviously be reinvesting at higher rates. Does that answer your question? Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:19:36It does, yes. No, thanks for all the color. I appreciate it. I'll step back. Operator00:19:46Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Breese with Stephens Inc. Please go ahead. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:19:54Hey, good morning. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:19:56Good morning. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:19:57Good morning. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:19:58I wanted to touch on commercial real estate just for a second. A lot of your peers in similar situations as you with lower CRE concentrations, many of them have been kind of nibbling back into the space as a lot of your higher CRE concentration peers have kind of pulled back. And I'm curious if you've kind of looked at spreads and yields and if there's been any sort of change in thinking there and is that a book if the yields present themselves that we might see some growth in 2025? Thank you. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:20:28Yes. I think I mean, I said on our senior loan committee, so we see the largest deals that come through the firm. When there are commercial real estate deals that have appropriate hurdles and that have good risk profiles, we're going to take advantage and do those deals. I don't think it is a focus of ours to specifically go out and grow that book materially from where it is. But we also don't have a specific target that suggests it has to that we're planning to materially run it off necessarily either. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:20:59So again, I think you would just expect us continue to practice good credit discipline in that space and take advantage when there are good opportunities to do commercial real estate deals, we'll do them. But again, we're liking how the balance sheet is shaping up through the natural flows and the business opportunities that we're taking advantage of. And generally speaking, we would like to get a little bit more focused on the C and I book and some of the variable rate deals that give us a little bit of different dynamics on our net interest income also. But if TK has anything to add, he can jump in. Thomas CrealExecutive VP & Chief Credit Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:21:34No, it's appropriate comments. Thomas CrealExecutive VP & Chief Credit Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:21:36We're just being really strategic about those opportunities. I hope we obviously have the balance sheet to lean into that space if we want to when we find the appropriate opportunities. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:21:49So from our perspective, Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:21:50is it fair to consider that, that portion of the loan portfolio flattish for the year? Is that a fair statement? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:21:58Yes. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:22:01Thank you. And then I was hoping you could also just go into expectations around loan and deposit betas expectations for the year. And as you exit 2025, do you think there's an upward bias to the NIM given the shape of the yield curve? And I feel like this environment for you with an upward sloping yield curve is certainly improving if not a more ideal one than we've seen in the last couple of years. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:22:24Yes, I would agree that there's definitely an opportunity to lean into the current rate environment and the current rate curves, right. Given sort of my earlier comments around how we think about consumer might be a good place to start. We have the opportunity to grow the consumer portfolio in the first half of the year. Those are going to be when the rate profiles of those credits are going to be the strongest. Similarly, as we get the opportunity to think about our deposit book over time, we have a relatively good amount of CDs that are priced in that year or less. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:23:00Those as they mature, we might take pause in issuing CDs until rates come down a little bit and take advantage of issuing later. And then just naturally, with our deposits being a little bit on the shorter end and our lending tend to be on the little bit of the longer end that upward sloping yield curve is going to provide additional benefits and that's why we're guiding to sort of continued margin growth in that 3.30 to 3.40 range. And we don't have a lot of rate cuts in our outlook, we have 2. And I don't know that I would necessarily say if the 2 cuts didn't come, we'd be in that much of a worse position. I mean, we're in pretty I think we're pretty comfortable with being able to manage through the rate environment in those parameters and even if they don't come. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:23:45Got it. Okay. And then Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:23:46the last one for me, I appreciate the net charge off guide. Maybe you could help us out a little bit with provision and or where you expect the reserve to settle out given the mix shift in the loan portfolio? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:24:01Yes, I would you should expect to see slight increases in provision, all else being equal. I'm not going to speak to where the credit environment is going to take us because as you know, the CECL models bake into that future expectations on credit losses. But if we're projecting some balance sheet growth and some loan growth, you should expect to see a similar amount of increases in the provision for loan losses because we'll have to provide for that growth as we go. So I would just sort of look at it that way. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:24:31That's all I had. Thanks for taking my questions. Operator00:24:37Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Cardenas with Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:24:46Good morning, guys. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:24:46Hey, Danny. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:24:48Just a quick follow-up on that provision comment. When you say we're looking for a slight increase, I guess, the 24,000,000 that's excluding the Q4 results? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:25:05Yes. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:25:06Okay. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:25:07Yes. That would be if we're at 1.04 as a percent of loans at the end of the year, if we have loan growth, if you kind of stay consistent with that level of reserving, you would expect to see general levels of growth. But it wouldn't it's kind of excluding the impact of those transactions. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:25:25Perfect. Okay. Got you. Got you. Okay. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:25:28And then, on capital deployment front, what are your thoughts on buybacks here in 2025? Will you kind of hand cut until the deal is done? Or would you guys be in the market looking to buy back stock opportunistically? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:25:44Yes, I think we've been pretty consistent with our capital priorities, but we'll go back through them, right? Like our number one priority is we're going to our earnings support the dividend that we have out there. And then we look for opportunities to support organic growth. And then we look for opportunities to deploy for strategic M and A. And then last, if we end up not having any of those opportunities and we needed to think about an incremental return to shareholders, we have buybacks kind of in that category. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:26:10So that has been consistent and will continue to be consistent. So given where our dividend payout ratio is, I wouldn't say buybacks are really contemplated in the near or intermediate future. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:26:25Great. All right. How many other questions have been asked and answered. Thanks. I'll step back. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:26:31Great. Thank you. Operator00:26:36Your next question comes from the line of Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:26:43Good morning, Frank. Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:26:44Hey, good morning, guys. This is Baader just filling in for Frank. Hi. I had a question about the deposit base. Are you guys curious if you guys are experiencing any pressure or pushback on deposit costs as rates continue to drop? Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:27:03Maybe what you're seeing in the different markets with regard to any pressure, any competition, any color on that would be helpful. Thank you. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:27:13Yes. I mean, I think we're still priced competitively everywhere that we are, right? We tend to operate in less competitively intense markets generally and we have not had significant reaction or pushback at the rates that we've had in market and in many markets, we have very good, very strong kind of top quartile rates, for acquisition products and other things. So I would not say we're experiencing that phenomena. Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:27:45Understood. I had a previous question that was answered, so I'll return back to the queue. Thank Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:27:49you. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:27:51Okay. Operator00:28:09I will now turn the call back over to Doug Schozer for closing remarks. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:28:15Great. Well, thanks everybody again. We appreciate your interest in NorthWest and taking time with us on the call and we will come back to you next quarter. Thank you. Operator00:28:26Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsAnalystsMichael PerryHead of Corporate Development & Strategy at Northwest Bancshares IncLouis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares IncDouglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares IncTim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James FinancialMatt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.Thomas CrealExecutive VP & Chief Credit Officer at Northwest Bancshares IncDaniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery ScottBader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler CompaniesPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallBelden Q4 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipants Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) Seagate Technology Earnings HeadlinesNorthwest Bancshares (NWBI) Gains Approval for Penns Woods Merger | NWBI Stock NewsApril 23 at 1:47 PM | gurufocus.comNorthwest Bancshares, Inc. Merger with Penns Woods Bancorp, Inc. Receives Regulatory and Shareholder ApprovalApril 23 at 8:35 AM | prnewswire.comSilicon Valley Gold RushA new technology has sparked a modern-day gold rush in Silicon Valley. OpenAI’s Sam Altman invested $375M. Bill Gates has backed four companies in this space. The World Economic Forum calls it “the most exciting human discovery since fire.” Whitney Tilson believes this trend could mint a new class of wealthy investors—and he’s sharing one stock to watch now, for free.April 24, 2025 | Stansberry Research (Ad)Despite lower earnings than three years ago, Northwest Bancshares (NASDAQ:NWBI) investors are up 5.7% since thenApril 10, 2025 | finance.yahoo.comSHAREHOLDER ALERT: Purcell & Lefkowitz LLP Announces Shareholder Investigation of Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: NWBI)April 8, 2025 | prnewswire.comNorthwest Bancshares, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call DetailsApril 7, 2025 | investing.comSee More Northwest Bancshares Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Seagate Technology? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Seagate Technology and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Seagate TechnologySeagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) provides data storage technology and solutions in Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands, and internationally. It provides mass capacity storage products, including enterprise nearline hard disk drives (HDDs), enterprise nearline solid state drives (SSDs), enterprise nearline systems, video and image HDDs, and network-attached storage drives. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Northwest Bancshares' 4th Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. This session is being recorded and a playback will be available on our Investor Relations website. All participants are currently in listen only mode. Towards the end of today's call, we will open the floor for a question and answer session. Operator00:00:23Now, I would like to introduce Michael Perry, who recently joined NorthWest as Managing Director of Corporate Strategy and Development and Investor Relations. Michael PerryHead of Corporate Development & Strategy at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:00:38Good morning, everyone, and thank you, operator. Welcome to Northwest Bancshares' 4th quarter 2024 earnings call. It's great to be here. Joining me today are Lou Torshio, President and CEO of Northwest Bancshares Doug Shosser, our Chief Financial Officer Sean Morrow, our Treasurer and T. K. Michael PerryHead of Corporate Development & Strategy at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:00:56Creel, our Chief Credit Officer. During this call, we will refer to information included in the supplemental earnings release presentation, which is available on our Investor Relations website. If you'd like to read our forward looking and other related disclosures, you can find them on Slide 2. Thank you. And now I'll hand it over to Lou. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:01:17Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us to discuss our quarterly results. I'm pleased to report that we delivered solid returns in the Q4 and we're happy with our core financial performance, which Doug will cover momentarily. In particular, last quarter, we saw significant improvement in our net interest margin as well as in our efficiency ratio. This continues to demonstrate that we are delivering on our commitment to sustainable growth. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:01:45Thanks to our company wide focus on deposit gathering while maintaining near best in class cost of funds, we continue to maintain a stable and strong funding base. In addition, we're able to reduce classified loans, helping us further eliminate risk from the balance sheet. All these results can be attributed to the talent, hard work and thought put forth each day by the members of our Northwest team. I want to thank them for their continued dedication to our company's success as well as their focus on our customers and communities. As we have reported, at Northwest, we are steadfast in our commitment to responsible growth, both organically and through acquisition. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:02:26With that, I'm happy to report that last quarter we announced that we entered into an agreement to acquire Penns Woods Bancorp. This transaction is expected to be completed sometime in Q3 of this year. This merger is Northwest's largest to date and marks another milestone in our long term strategy. It further connects our Pennsylvania franchise and will make us one of the top 100 largest banks in the nation. Finally, as we have for the previous 120 quarters, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I'm pleased to declare a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share to shareholders of record as of February 3, 2025. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:03:06Now it's my pleasure to introduce Doug Schosser, our Chief Financial Officer, who will take us through our financial results. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:03:14Thank you, Lou, and good morning, everyone. Before we dive into today's presentation, I'd like to comment on the addition of Michael Perry. In addition to helping us facilitate our M and A strategy, Michael will also lead our company's strategic planning process and our Investor Relations function, serving as a primary point of contact to the investment community. We're really excited to add Michael and his extensive knowledge and experience to the Northwest team. Now let's begin on Page 4 of the earnings presentation, where I'll highlight Northwest financial results for the Q4 of 2024. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:03:45We reported a net income of $33,000,000 or $0.26 per diluted share. Our net interest margin expanded by 13 basis points this quarter to 3.42 percent, aided partially by an interest recovery on a non accrual loan, which added 6 basis points to that margin. We continue to see our margin increase due to our continued pricing discipline on our deposit portfolio and our focus on appropriate pricing on our originated loans supported by a more favorable rate environment. Compared to the same quarter last year, our loan portfolio balances were essentially flat, but we do see improvement in our mix as commercial loans increased and the portfolio becomes more commercially weighted. Deposit balances grew by 2% compared to the 4th quarter a year ago and cost of funds decreased even further as we saw volumes in the higher yielding savings products decline. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:04:35Non interest income increased $12,000,000 for the quarter, which includes a $6,000,000 gain in the sale of the last tranche of our Visabee shares and a $4,000,000 gain related to a low income housing tax credit investment. Non interest expense increased by 5% or approximately $3,000,000 from the 3rd quarter. Credit quality remains strong with overall allowance coverage decreasing to 1.04% of loans from 1.11% last quarter and a year ago. This can be attributed in part to the de risking actions taken within the quarter, including the sale and transfer of certain loans from our books. Finally, our capital position remains strong with an estimated Tier 1 capital to risk weighted assets of 13.8% on December 31 estimated. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:05:22Now, let's delve into additional details. On Page 5, you'll see our commercial industrial loans grew by 6.2% since last quarter and 23.5% year over year, while residential mortgages declined by 6.6% since last year. The shift underscores our focus on our commercial banking transformation. Our commercial real estate portfolio shrank by 0.4% since last quarter, reflecting a more desirable loan mix with a higher share of C and I compared to CRE. Our loan yields remained steady this quarter at 5.6%. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:05:54Moving to Page 6, deposits remained strong through the end of 2024, having grown 2% versus the end of 2023. During the last quarter, we recognized the benefits of lower short term interest rates with a 10 basis point decrease in our cost of funds. Most deposit growth occurred in the interest bearing demand products, while volumes in higher cost and higher yield savings products continued to slow. The current cost of deposits stands at 1.68%, again down 10 basis points from the 3rd quarter and still near best in class relative to our peers. On Page 7, we cover the net interest margin, which now stands at 3.42%, up from 3.33% last quarter. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:06:35Included in the 4th quarter results was an interest recovery on a non accrual loan that was paid off in full. This added 6 basis points to our margin in the quarter. A more normalized net interest margin in the 4th quarter would be about 3.36%. Fully tax equivalent net interest income grew by approximately 4% from $112,000,000 last quarter to $115,000,000 this quarter. This marks our 2nd consecutive quarter of net interest income growth, reflecting reduced borrowings, higher loan yields and a reduction in our cost of funds. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:07:07We ended the quarter with a cost of funds of 2.27%, a significant improvement from the last quarter. We have included some additional information on the margin on the next few slides. Now moving to Slide 10, non interest income increased $12,200,000 from the previous quarter, driven by an increase in other operating income that included the sale of those vis a vis shares and the low income housing tax credit I mentioned earlier. Compared to the year ago quarter, we saw an $11,000,000 increase in non interest income as a result of our continued growth in trust income, higher gains on sale of FBA loans and BOLI income, partially offset by lower gains on the sale of REO properties and a prior gain on sale of non SBA loans. Slide 11 details reflecting our continued focus on managing expenses without impacting core operations or sacrificing customer service. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:08:05Regarding credit quality on Page 12, our allowance to loans coverage decreased to 1.04% with net charge offs recorded at 87 basis points, including the impacts of our de risking activities taken within the quarter. If we exclude those impacts, our charge offs would be just 35 basis points. Page 13 shows that overall credit performance remains strong with non performing assets holding steady at 0.54%, while 30 day loan delinquency saw a slight increase to 90 basis points, classified loans decreased to 2.44% of total loans and our coverage ratio on non performing loans increased to 188% from 162% recorded in the 3rd quarter. Slide 14 highlights our commercial loan concentration showcasing a diverse portfolio. Strong underwriting has helped us avoid many CRE specific issues and we have minimal exposure to large metro office or rent controlled markets. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:09:03With the success of 2024, we have entered 2025 with significant momentum. I'd like to review our 2025 guidance, which can be found on Slide 16. We will still continue to focus on responsible and profitable loan growth in the commercial space, particularly C and I lending. We anticipate low single digit loan and deposit growth. We'll manage deposit costs while balancing client expectations and market preferences, allowing for continued modest net interest margin expansion. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:09:31We expect non interest income to be in the range of $124,000,000 to $129,000,000 for the full year. We will keep expense growth in the low single digits in 2025 as we shift our focus to creating positive operating leverage and balance expense growth in our long term investments. Both our tax rate and net charge offs are expected to normalize in 2025 as our net charge offs remain within our normalized range of 25 to 35 basis points and our tax rate will remain unchanged. Our guidance excludes any impacts from the recently announced acquisition of PennzWoods. On behalf of the entire leadership team and the Board of Directors, thank you for joining our call this morning. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:10:10I will now turn the call over to the operator, who will facilitate the live Q and A session. Operator00:10:33Your first question comes from the line of Tim Switzer with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:10:42Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:10:46Good morning, Tim. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:10:46Good morning, Tim. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:10:49We appreciate the detailed guide you provided in the slide deck here. Can you clarify real quick for the non interest income outlook, does that also exclude the impact of Penns Woods? And what's driving that growth there? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:11:07Yes. All of the guidance we're providing excludes the impact from Pennswoods and we are focused on driving better fee income performance and more consistent fee income performance strategically within the firm. So that's an expectation that we'll be able to generate that type of activity through the course of the year. I think we also provided more of a numerical guide only because we had so many things rolling through fee income this year that were a little bit unique like the securities restructure that we wanted to be transparent with where we were targeting fee income. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:11:42Yes, I know, it's super helpful. I appreciate you doing that. And if we think about the NII outlook with Pinswood, the rate movements have been pretty extreme over the last month or so. Can you talk about, I guess, first maybe how that's changed the expected tangible book value dilution? And then what's the expected purchase accounting as of most recently with the change in the yield curve? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:12:13Yes. We're not intending to provide updated guidance on the Pensoads acquisition until we get much closer to the closing date, because as you know, all of that will constantly change with our stock with changes in our stock price. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:12:28Okay. And the last question I have is, after cleaning up some of the credit book here, can you give us an update on like what's remaining in the healthcare portfolio? What the credit quality looks like? And then, are you seeing any other areas outside of that book that you're more cautious about or anything you're seeing in maybe the consumer portfolio? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:12:53Yes. So I think we dealt with most of the stress that we saw in the long term healthcare portfolio with these transactions. I will remind everyone, we moved some of the transactions, some of the credits are in held for sale. We would expect to execute a transaction to get those fully off the books over the course of the Q1. So we don't have any concerns in any particular sectors in the rest of the book and feel like we're entering the year in a pretty stable position. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:13:24We also tried to provide that normalized charge off number just to show that absent some of those de risking transactions, we would have been within the normalized range that we were projecting. Tim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)00:13:37Okay, great. Thank you, guys. Operator00:13:41Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Tanayo with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:13:51Thank you. Good morning guys. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:13:51Good Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:13:53morning. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:13:55So I guess my first question just on the loan growth side. You talked about I think I heard low single digits for the year. You've had strong momentum certainly on the commercial side. Maybe if you could just talk about what you're seeing in terms of momentum in the commercial side, if that's still strong and then really the driver of the net loan growth number is reductions in CRE or other portfolios, just how you're thinking about it kind of segmented out a little bit? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:14:28Yes. So we are looking at decent pipeline strength in our pipelines right now for commercial. So we feel that there's going to be a more constructive environment in 2025 as all of the different changes in administration and all of that settles down a little bit. So we're thinking that that is going to be a net positive for us. We also will take advantage of opportunities to grow consumer loans when those opportunities present themselves. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:14:57So in general, we're going to try to we're going to continue to focus obviously on commercial. We also guided for some expense growth this year. We will allow for some additional hiring in the commercial verticals as well just to continue to develop the build out in commercial that we've talked about. So again, I think I would generally say just looking for a more balanced overall approach and when we have the opportunity to generate good returns either in the consumer portfolios or the commercial portfolios next year, we'll take advantage of them and we expect some of that business to be available for us. So that's reflective of the overall guide of some modest balance sheet growth next year. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:15:36Got it. That makes sense. Do you think it may be a little bit slower than what it can be on a total loan growth basis next year and then you could potentially end the year a little bit faster into going into 'twenty six moving towards more of a normalized loan growth rate maybe in the mid or a little bit above that percentage growth percentage rate? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:03Yes. I mean, again, there's fluctuations that you have to deal with all along the way, right? Like all Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:07of these weather events are certainly Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:07going to slow down, for example, the car sale market, right. So when we have opportunities to take advantage, we will, but we can't accommodate exactly when the growth will come. It will be there when the market allows it to be. We're still focused as we've been on making sure that we get good pricing and good terms on both consumer and commercial loans. And when those are there, we're going to take advantage of them and do them. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:32But we are really working on maintaining the loan yields and improving the overall margin by making sure that we're not just out taking significant levels of growth at rates that aren't going to produce a stable and growing margin. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:16:47Hey, Danny, it's Lou. I would just add that the strategy is intact, right? So we're going to have the maturation of the verticals that we've discussed on prior calls and prior meetings, as well as we have a renewed focus on the what we call the core franchise middle market, lower middle market in the 4 states that we have retail presence. And so to your point about while it may be a slower start to the year, we're looking to pick up steam in the latter part of the year a little bit as well as we have a continued focus on deposit gathering in our commercial franchise. And so that will become more evident as we move along through the year as well. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:17:38And as Doug pointed out, it's not that we're completely focused on commercial. So notwithstanding we have these mortgages on the balance sheet that really are low rate and long that we're running off. We'll have some opportunities in the consumer segment. And so we'll look for balanced growth in that area as well. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:18:07Terrific. But thanks for all that color. I guess just one last one, maybe on the securities book. I'm just looking at your Slide 9 here on that. You've got the direct duration of 5 to 4 years. Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:18:22So I'm just curious kind of what's rolling off this year where you might see some benefit in terms of the margin in 2025? Obviously that book remains a little bit of a drag on the NIM overall from a dollar's perspective. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:18:39Yes, I can turn it over to Sean if he has any specifics he wants to highlight on things that are rolling off. I mean, we are reinvesting cash flows into higher yielding securities. So that will continue to help drag that mark or that return up over time. If there is an opportunity over the course of the year to consider a balance sheet investment securities reposition, we would probably take advantage of that. But again, that's not a core focus of ours and it would be something that would be opportunistic versus something that would be that is in part of our strategies next year. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:19:13So as we did last time, if we get closer to executing one of those, we have the opportunity and we'll certainly talk a little bit about it in advance. But I would say generally speaking, we're looking at maintaining the size and strength of that portfolio. And as we continue to get positive cash flows from it, we'll obviously be reinvesting at higher rates. Does that answer your question? Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James Financial00:19:36It does, yes. No, thanks for all the color. I appreciate it. I'll step back. Operator00:19:46Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Breese with Stephens Inc. Please go ahead. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:19:54Hey, good morning. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:19:56Good morning. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:19:57Good morning. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:19:58I wanted to touch on commercial real estate just for a second. A lot of your peers in similar situations as you with lower CRE concentrations, many of them have been kind of nibbling back into the space as a lot of your higher CRE concentration peers have kind of pulled back. And I'm curious if you've kind of looked at spreads and yields and if there's been any sort of change in thinking there and is that a book if the yields present themselves that we might see some growth in 2025? Thank you. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:20:28Yes. I think I mean, I said on our senior loan committee, so we see the largest deals that come through the firm. When there are commercial real estate deals that have appropriate hurdles and that have good risk profiles, we're going to take advantage and do those deals. I don't think it is a focus of ours to specifically go out and grow that book materially from where it is. But we also don't have a specific target that suggests it has to that we're planning to materially run it off necessarily either. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:20:59So again, I think you would just expect us continue to practice good credit discipline in that space and take advantage when there are good opportunities to do commercial real estate deals, we'll do them. But again, we're liking how the balance sheet is shaping up through the natural flows and the business opportunities that we're taking advantage of. And generally speaking, we would like to get a little bit more focused on the C and I book and some of the variable rate deals that give us a little bit of different dynamics on our net interest income also. But if TK has anything to add, he can jump in. Thomas CrealExecutive VP & Chief Credit Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:21:34No, it's appropriate comments. Thomas CrealExecutive VP & Chief Credit Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:21:36We're just being really strategic about those opportunities. I hope we obviously have the balance sheet to lean into that space if we want to when we find the appropriate opportunities. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:21:49So from our perspective, Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:21:50is it fair to consider that, that portion of the loan portfolio flattish for the year? Is that a fair statement? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:21:58Yes. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:22:01Thank you. And then I was hoping you could also just go into expectations around loan and deposit betas expectations for the year. And as you exit 2025, do you think there's an upward bias to the NIM given the shape of the yield curve? And I feel like this environment for you with an upward sloping yield curve is certainly improving if not a more ideal one than we've seen in the last couple of years. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:22:24Yes, I would agree that there's definitely an opportunity to lean into the current rate environment and the current rate curves, right. Given sort of my earlier comments around how we think about consumer might be a good place to start. We have the opportunity to grow the consumer portfolio in the first half of the year. Those are going to be when the rate profiles of those credits are going to be the strongest. Similarly, as we get the opportunity to think about our deposit book over time, we have a relatively good amount of CDs that are priced in that year or less. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:23:00Those as they mature, we might take pause in issuing CDs until rates come down a little bit and take advantage of issuing later. And then just naturally, with our deposits being a little bit on the shorter end and our lending tend to be on the little bit of the longer end that upward sloping yield curve is going to provide additional benefits and that's why we're guiding to sort of continued margin growth in that 3.30 to 3.40 range. And we don't have a lot of rate cuts in our outlook, we have 2. And I don't know that I would necessarily say if the 2 cuts didn't come, we'd be in that much of a worse position. I mean, we're in pretty I think we're pretty comfortable with being able to manage through the rate environment in those parameters and even if they don't come. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:23:45Got it. Okay. And then Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:23:46the last one for me, I appreciate the net charge off guide. Maybe you could help us out a little bit with provision and or where you expect the reserve to settle out given the mix shift in the loan portfolio? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:24:01Yes, I would you should expect to see slight increases in provision, all else being equal. I'm not going to speak to where the credit environment is going to take us because as you know, the CECL models bake into that future expectations on credit losses. But if we're projecting some balance sheet growth and some loan growth, you should expect to see a similar amount of increases in the provision for loan losses because we'll have to provide for that growth as we go. So I would just sort of look at it that way. Matt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.00:24:31That's all I had. Thanks for taking my questions. Operator00:24:37Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Cardenas with Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:24:46Good morning, guys. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:24:46Hey, Danny. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:24:48Just a quick follow-up on that provision comment. When you say we're looking for a slight increase, I guess, the 24,000,000 that's excluding the Q4 results? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:25:05Yes. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:25:06Okay. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:25:07Yes. That would be if we're at 1.04 as a percent of loans at the end of the year, if we have loan growth, if you kind of stay consistent with that level of reserving, you would expect to see general levels of growth. But it wouldn't it's kind of excluding the impact of those transactions. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:25:25Perfect. Okay. Got you. Got you. Okay. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:25:28And then, on capital deployment front, what are your thoughts on buybacks here in 2025? Will you kind of hand cut until the deal is done? Or would you guys be in the market looking to buy back stock opportunistically? Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:25:44Yes, I think we've been pretty consistent with our capital priorities, but we'll go back through them, right? Like our number one priority is we're going to our earnings support the dividend that we have out there. And then we look for opportunities to support organic growth. And then we look for opportunities to deploy for strategic M and A. And then last, if we end up not having any of those opportunities and we needed to think about an incremental return to shareholders, we have buybacks kind of in that category. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:26:10So that has been consistent and will continue to be consistent. So given where our dividend payout ratio is, I wouldn't say buybacks are really contemplated in the near or intermediate future. Daniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery Scott00:26:25Great. All right. How many other questions have been asked and answered. Thanks. I'll step back. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:26:31Great. Thank you. Operator00:26:36Your next question comes from the line of Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Louis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:26:43Good morning, Frank. Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:26:44Hey, good morning, guys. This is Baader just filling in for Frank. Hi. I had a question about the deposit base. Are you guys curious if you guys are experiencing any pressure or pushback on deposit costs as rates continue to drop? Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:27:03Maybe what you're seeing in the different markets with regard to any pressure, any competition, any color on that would be helpful. Thank you. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:27:13Yes. I mean, I think we're still priced competitively everywhere that we are, right? We tend to operate in less competitively intense markets generally and we have not had significant reaction or pushback at the rates that we've had in market and in many markets, we have very good, very strong kind of top quartile rates, for acquisition products and other things. So I would not say we're experiencing that phenomena. Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:27:45Understood. I had a previous question that was answered, so I'll return back to the queue. Thank Bader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler Companies00:27:49you. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:27:51Okay. Operator00:28:09I will now turn the call back over to Doug Schozer for closing remarks. Douglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares Inc00:28:15Great. Well, thanks everybody again. We appreciate your interest in NorthWest and taking time with us on the call and we will come back to you next quarter. Thank you. Operator00:28:26Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsAnalystsMichael PerryHead of Corporate Development & Strategy at Northwest Bancshares IncLouis TorchioPresident and CEO at Northwest Bancshares IncDouglas SchosserChief Financial Officer at Northwest Bancshares IncTim SwitzerVice President of Equity Research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)Daniel TamayoVice President at Raymond James FinancialMatt BreeseManaging Director, Equity Research at Stephens Inc.Thomas CrealExecutive VP & Chief Credit Officer at Northwest Bancshares IncDaniel CardenasDirector at Janney Montgomery ScottBader HijlehEquity Research Associate at Piper Sandler CompaniesPowered by