Firstsun Capital Bancorp Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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April 29, 2025

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the First Sun Capital Bancorp First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings I'd now like to turn the call over to Ed Jacks, FirstSun's Director of Investor Relations and Business Development. You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and good morning. I'm joined today by Neil Arnold, our Chief Executive Officer and President Rob Caffera, our Chief Financial Officer and Jennifer Norris, our Chief Credit Officer. We will start the call with some brief remarks to highlight a few items of interest and then move into questions. Our comments will reference the earnings release and investor presentation, which you will find on our website under the Investor Relations section. During this call, we may make remarks about future expectations, plans and prospects for the company that constitute forward looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Speaker 1

Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in our annual report on Form 10 ks, which is on file with the SEC. I will now turn the call over to Neil Arman.

Speaker 2

Good morning, and thank you for joining us, and thank you, Ed. We might be a little rusty. It's been a while since we did earnings calls. But let me start by saying we're quite pleased with the start for the year, certainly here in the first quarter. Our focus on consistently delivering value added solutions across the footprint continues to drive our growth and our strong financial performance.

Speaker 2

This quarter, we achieved net income of $23,600,000 representing earnings per share of $0.83 and a $1.2 ROA. This quarter also was highlighted by continued strong net interest margin performance at 4.07 and solid loan deposit growth with loans up 7% and deposits up 12% annualized at the end of the quarter. Our focus on relationship based banking across our business lines continues to be evidenced by the revenue mix with our service fee income up slightly over last quarter and representing 22.6% of our total revenues. We also maintained expense at a level flat to last quarter adjusted for all the growth opportunities in front of us. Our focus remains on delivering positive operating leverage in 2025 and beyond.

Speaker 2

We believe we are making the right investments to position us favorably as we move forward. Certainly, we all recognize the talk about tariff and potential economic impact is spreading around the industry right now. While it's still early, I think many are exercising more and more caution. We haven't seen pervasive issues emerging within our loan portfolio, and that is somewhat a function of the nature of our customer base and not being overly reliant on any one industry. Having said that, in the first quarter, we did see one $13,000,000 commercial credit experience some performance challenges that has cross border component to it.

Speaker 2

The credit was moved to non accrual and did negatively impact our loan loss provision in the first quarter. And I think most of you have heard us say the challenge with C and I is it's lumpy. We don't see any other pervasive issues, however, at this time. We understand we still have a ways to go to really all of our businesses across the franchise. We think will continue to deliver strong long term financial performance.

Speaker 2

And we still believe that The U. S. Economy will be resilient, especially in this region of the country. Overall, I'm excited to share the momentum we've achieved across our markets, and we continue to see success in winning new relationships with our business model. We are favorably positioned in some of the nicest growth markets in the country, and we believe that our investments will continue to provide excellent growth opportunities.

Speaker 2

We believe we have plenty of runway for growth in these markets given our very small market share and that will continue to be our predominant focus. We benefit from a diverse and strong balance sheet, solid capital position, sound credit and risk management. I will now pass the call over to Rob Caffera to discuss more of our financial results in the quarter. Rob?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Neil. Several highlights to touch on here this morning as we look at our results thus far this year, and I'll start on the balance sheet side. Loan growth was strong this quarter, up 7% on an annualized basis and ending the quarter right at $6,500,000,000 in total balance. Growth was driven primarily by the C and I portfolio as we continue to see success in the high growth markets in our footprint. Growth in the C and I portfolio was partially offset by a decline in our commercial real estate portfolio.

Speaker 3

To that end, our regulatory CRE to capital ratio now stands at 115%, which we think provides us some nice flexibility. Total new loan fundings totaled $399,000,000 in the first quarter. That's up 48% from last quarter and up 37% from the first quarter last year. So a significant measure a significant increase on either measure. We also saw healthy deposit growth this quarter with total quarter end deposits increasing by about $200,000,000 or 12% annualized.

Speaker 3

Growth was strongest in savings and money market accounts, and we enjoyed growth in both our consumer as well as our business accounts, with total annualized savings and money market growth at up 20%. Overall mix improved in total this quarter with noninterest bearing deposits pretty stable and right at 22.9% of our total deposit mix. Our loan to deposit ratio was at 94.3% at the end of the quarter, and that's improved from a 95.6% level at the end of last year. We also saw improvement in our already low ratio of wholesale borrowings and deposits to total liabilities this quarter, which was down to approximately 7% from the eight percent level at the end of last year. So good progress continued on the liquidity front in our balance sheet.

Speaker 3

I will note that our balance sheet growth in the first quarter was back end loaded. Our average balances on the loan side were actually down slightly, and it'd be about 4% on an annualized basis, while our average deposit balances were up slightly, about 1% on an annualized basis. So I guess maybe a little tailwind for us as we started off the second quarter here. Our pipelines remain pretty robust, and we still expect mid single digit growth for both loans and deposits for the full year. Turning to the P and L side.

Speaker 3

As Neil mentioned, our net interest margin continues to remain very strong at 4.07%. I think we've been above the 4% level now for ten straight quarters. Our level of net interest income declined by about 3% from the prior quarter, certainly impacted by day count difference and the average balance topic that I just mentioned. Net interest income was up 5% compared in the first quarter last year. Our net interest margin was down slightly this quarter by about two bps and impacted by the full quarter effect from the macro rate declines that we saw back in the fourth quarter with a 13 basis point decline in earning asset yields in comparison to a 16 basis point decline in interest bearing liabilities with deposit rates down 12 bps.

Speaker 3

In terms of full year guidance for net interest income, we expect an increase in the mid single digit range. Our expectations are in part based on the forward curve view from earlier this month and include Fed cuts in September and November and impacts from asset repricing and a deposit beta around 50% in the near term. We've strayed from consensus slightly in terms of the timing of rate actions for the remainder of 2025. As Neil mentioned, we acknowledge the prevailing market or macro uncertainty and its likely impact on business and consumer investment and spending. And we expect we'll all continue to see a rapidly evolving environment for the foreseeable future here.

Speaker 3

Our overall '25 guidance thoughts are as much based on the vibrant markets we operate in as well as our focus across all of our sales teams on execution. On the service fee revenue side, our performance in total was fairly consistent with the prior quarter. Activity across each of our service revenue businesses was a bit mixed. We saw a notable increase in our swap and syndication revenues, which were up about $600,000 which is about 111%, and really a function of just more activity there in the first quarter. We also saw growth in our treasury management service revenues for our business customers, which is consistent with our focus on driving C and I relationship growth.

Speaker 3

Our consumer deposit service revenues were down about 9% and really a function of a lesser level of NSF activity, somewhat impacted by some program changes we implemented late in 2024. We also saw interchange revenues decline slightly as total transaction volumes were down about 8% from the prior quarter, which is a little heavier of a decrease on the interchange side than the seasonal decrease we historically have seen in the first quarter. Our Wealth Advisory and Trust revenues were largely flat as the benefits from new AUM inflow were offset by the impact from market value declines. Finally, mortgage revenues also saw a decline compared to the prior quarter. And while we enjoyed a welcome improvement in gain on sale margin, total revenue was down largely related to MSR activity environment during the quarter and, a slight increase in CPR.

Speaker 3

Total net interest expense on an adjusted basis was also flat with the fourth quarter. While compensation expense was up primarily related to the seasonality impact from higher payroll taxes and some the impact from annual merit. We also saw an improvement in some more discretionary categories like T and E, professional and marketing expenses to name a few. In terms of full year guidance on the non interest income side, we're expecting a high single digit to low double digit growth rate and we expect non interest expenses in the mid to high single digit growth range compared to the prior year's adjusted non interest expense. As Neil noted, we're very focused on driving positive operating leverage in 2025 and positioning the bank for continued growth in the future.

Speaker 3

We will, of course, keep a close eye on the macro environment and any emerging trends there, and such will certainly dictate the magnitude and pace of the investments and growth opportunities that we pursue. Regarding asset quality, our provision expense for the first quarter was $3,800,000 resulting in an allowance for credit loss ratio of 1.42%. We had a couple of moving pieces here this quarter. First, we saw some experience factor benefits, namely upgrades that occurred within the quarter as well as higher prepayments, which both favorably impacted the model reserve. Second, and in light of recent macroeconomic developments, we added stress to the economic qualitative factors, which unfavorably impacted the model reserve.

Speaker 3

We see it likely that there will be additional volatility in the Moody's economic forecast component in the model throughout the rest of this year. Lastly, as Neil referenced earlier, we did see one larger credit fall in the nonaccrual status in the first quarter, and it had an associated specific reserve, which was also an unfavorable impact to the model reserve. In total, our nonperforming loans as a percent of total loans increased 13 bps to 1.21% this quarter. While we did see some resolutions in the nonaccrual bucket in Q1, the inflow of the one larger credit did lead to the net increase to that 121 basis points at quarter end. Annualized net charge offs as a percentage of average loans remained very low at four bps for the quarter.

Speaker 3

However, as it relates to the full year, we expect net charge offs to be in the high teens to low 20s range in terms of basis points and and certainly linked to how macroeconomic landscape evolves throughout the year. The increase in expected charge offs for the full year is attributable primarily to the one loan that moved into non accrual status in the first quarter. We expect losses on that loan would be covered by the specific reserve established in the first quarter. On the capital side, we continue to strengthen our position and we saw our TBV per share improved to $34.88 We saw our CET1 improved by eight basis points to 13.26%, and we saw Tier one leverage improve 36 bps to 12.47%. Our priorities on the capital side remain focused on our organic growth plan as well as opportunistic pursuits to add to our franchise.

Speaker 3

Certainly, if the stock market and banking sector overall remain at depressed levels, we'll expand our analysis to look at share buyback alternatives. I will now turn the call back to the moderator to open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. The floor is now open for Our first question today comes from Woody Lay with KBW. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning guys.

Speaker 5

Good morning, Woody.

Speaker 4

Wanted to start on the expense guide. You moved it lower for the full year '25. And I'd imagine part of that drivers is lower variable comp from the adjusted fee income guide. Are there any other drivers behind the lower expense guidance?

Speaker 3

Yes, you're right on. The expense and fee income guides are linked. And it's really just the overall macro uncertainty out there. We did see a little bit of a slowdown on the mortgage side. And of course, as you said, that also carries through on the expense side in terms of variable comp.

Speaker 3

So that's a big factor as we're looking forward and just the macro backdrop. Secondly, we did see a little bit of a slowdown in consumer activity with card, debit and credit. So maybe a little bit of a pullback on expectations just on spending and related interchange there really driving some of the moderation on the fee side.

Speaker 4

Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe for my last question, I just wanted to touch on M and A. And, I know during periods of uncertainty, in the past, this has opened opportunities for you all to move on the offensive. So so how does this environment impact your thoughts around m and a?

Speaker 2

Yeah. I I mean, Woody, we're always we always have the posture of being opportunistic. And and certainly times of difficulty, you know, we we try to be flexible. I guess the thing I'd say is we feel like we're in a good spot with our capital levels. I I wouldn't wanna be trying to issue a bunch of stock in this environment to fill a hole, but I I think we feel pretty good where we're at and, you know, things are are moving around.

Speaker 2

I think we all thought there'd be more activity, but I do think it's still going to continue.

Speaker 4

Got it. Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Whitty.

Operator

Our next question comes from Tim Mitchell with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hey, good morning, everyone. Good morning, Tim.

Speaker 6

I want to start out I wanted to

Speaker 1

start on the loan growth this quarter, which was solid and kind of in contrast to any of your peers that we've seen reports so far.

Speaker 6

I was just curious if you could kind

Speaker 1

of give some color around the competition and the rate they are putting new loads on and then any more color on the pipeline, which it sounds like is still pretty solid.

Speaker 3

Yes. Maybe I'll start off, and I know Neil will have a comment or two as well. Yes, I think overall activity we're seeing continues to be strong in that C and I space. Pricing also remains strong. So we're very pleased with the credit spreads we're still seeing there.

Speaker 3

Competition is competition. It's always there. Of course, as we noted earlier, I think we did see a little bit of a lag or a pause during the quarter. And then really right at the end of the quarter, we saw more heavier activity. That's continued into pipeline here in Q2 remaining strong.

Speaker 3

We've seen not as much pause thus far in the second quarter, but we certainly saw some pause the first quarter there for the first couple of months of the quarter. Neil, I don't know you would Yes.

Speaker 6

The only thing I would

Speaker 2

add is, I think Rob's right. We saw March was stronger than the other months in the quarter. And I think a lot of times during economic uncertainty, some of our stronger clients take advantage of the opportunity. And I think this might be no different where we see some of the people taking advantage of the, uncertainty to, to maybe tackle some things that, you know, needs the financial strength. But I I would say more broadly, I think, you know, there are sectors that are impacted by all the tariff uncertainty, but there are also ones that are continuing to, you know, have strong backlog.

Speaker 2

So it's a bit of a mixed bag at this point. Caution is out there, but we continue to see good activity and I think pipeline is pretty strong.

Speaker 1

Great. Thanks for all the color. And then on the deposit side, I see the outlook for a stable NIM, but just given the commentary around expecting CD balances decline and some pretty solid growth in bearing balances. Is it fair to assume and you're baking in some rate cuts in your guide, but even absentee rate cuts, just given those dynamics, that deposit costs could move lower? And then secondly, I assume a lot of the core deposit growth there is based on the new branches in Southern California.

Speaker 1

So if you just give any color to hiring efforts in early days in those markets.

Speaker 3

Yes, definitely. I would say, certainly, we always welcome lower rates on the deposit side. It's still pretty competitive out there, both in consumer and in the corporate world. So certainly, we expect mix improvement. But I think we're also seeing and expecting to continue to see it's to remain pretty tight on the pricing side.

Speaker 3

So I don't think you'll see any outsized movements down over and above what happens with macro rates there. In terms of balanced growth, that's really being driven on both the corporate side as well as the consumer side. We've seen very nice reception in our Southern California efforts in those offices and with the teams down there, very nice reception. We've got a couple of hundred million in deposits that we've seen there already. So very strong performance.

Speaker 3

I think the pipeline for the teams there is also quite strong. So I think we expect to see growth from SoCal as well as from some of our other markets that will drive growth here in 2025.

Speaker 1

Got it. All right. Well, thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the questions.

Speaker 5

Good morning.

Speaker 6

Good morning. Just want to hone in a little bit more on the margin kind of in

Speaker 3

the near term. Do you

Speaker 6

have the spot rate on deposits at the March and the average margin in the month of March?

Speaker 3

The month of March, you know, I think our margin for the month was I think we were right around I think we were in the mid-four single digit. I think we were four zero seven, four zero eight range. So we were pretty stable on margin levels. And deposit pricing, similarly, pretty stable through the first several months of the year in the first quarter.

Speaker 6

Yes. Spot rate would be helpful and deposits if you had it just to give us some visibility at the March, if we could follow-up. And that 407, 4 0 8 is not FTE, right, on a FTE basis?

Speaker 3

That's not FTE. That's correct. Yep.

Speaker 5

That that is not FTE.

Speaker 6

All right. And then on the mortgage revenue line, can you just quantify how much the MSR write down kind of net hedging was that negatively impacted that number?

Speaker 3

Yes. And it was more on the MSR side, the fair value net of hedging impact relatively negligible from one quarter to the next Q4 to Q1. We really saw the impact in what I'm characterizing is kind of the MSR net capitalization, which is the combination of new inflow and amortization on the portfolio as a result of macro rate and what's happening with CPR. So that's where we saw more of the impact. I think the MSR net of hedging fair value change was less than $100,000

Speaker 1

But it

Speaker 3

was really the pickup in CPR and the impact in overall net capitalization that drove the comparison to the prior quarter.

Speaker 6

Okay. And then just on the run rate here go ahead. Sorry.

Speaker 3

I was just gonna say, I think in total, average life decreased by about three months, you know, just to put that CPR, in perspective.

Speaker 6

Yep. Okay. And just on the expense run rate in 2Q, you had the payroll tax, merit increase, but, any and I know we, you know, gave the efficiency ratio guide so we can all kind of back into that. But just wanted to speak more to the expense run rate in 2Q. Any color there?

Speaker 3

I mean, I think certainly in total, starting within total, our expectations for the year on expenses is going to be in that mid to high single digit growth rate level. That translates to it is going to pick up. The pace is going to pick up if all things are aligned with our expectations in order to get to that point on the full year level. So yes, we're expecting Q2 to pick up efficiency. We expect that to tick a little bit higher in Q2 and then start to come down a little bit and then a little bit more in Q4 just as the revenue ramps on that side.

Speaker 6

Okay. Got it. And then just back to the M and A question, just to close out conversation, can you just give us a sense for your maybe your wish list or top maybe top three in terms of, you know, where you prioritize and where you'd where you'd like to enhance your presence. I assume Southern California, but just trying to get a better sense of, you know, if you had your choice from geographic and size perspective, where would where would that be?

Speaker 5

Neil, why don't you Yeah.

Speaker 2

This is Neil. Yeah. I I guess I'd say the the the thought is predominantly in footprint, you know, continuing to add. You know, with being an opportunistic, we don't always dictate the who and where. So I would just say we're gonna stay focused within our footprint as we look to add.

Speaker 2

And, you know, I I don't have any ticker symbols for you, but, you know, I think our our thought is to continue what we've always done.

Speaker 6

Fair enough. Thanks again. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Matt Olney with Stephens. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hi, great. Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Sticking with that M and A discussion, Neil, I'm sure you saw the distressed deal announced last week in Texas.

Speaker 5

And in many respects, that deal checked a lot of the boxes of your M and A strategy, good deposit base, but obviously some near term challenges. Did you get a look at that deal? And is this the profile of something that you would consider?

Speaker 2

Yes. Think in fairness, industry got looked at by everybody in Texas that I'm aware of. You know, it it was certainly a challenging situation, you know, solid deposit franchise with a, you know, horrific mark to market on the asset side. You know, it it took a pretty large institution to be able to swallow that. You know, those numbers are, not insignificant.

Speaker 2

And, at the end of the day, you know, certainly fit a lot of the pieces, but we're we're not gonna put our shareholders at risk with a big hole that, you know, has volatility in this market.

Speaker 5

Sure. I understand. And then I guess switching gears over to the guidance and some of the moving parts there. You maintain the guidance around the loan growth and the deposit growth and you mentioned you lowered the guidance around the net interest income. It sounds like that was driven partially by the timing of the Fed cuts that you're assuming.

Speaker 5

Just any more color on that incremental change from a lower guidance?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Absolutely, Matt. I would tell you a chunk of that relates certainly to the experience in the first quarter where we actually had average balance declination, which which was a little different than our original expectations because of of that back end loaded loan growth. So that that had a a larger impact on the overall guidance that that we're expecting on on the NII side. You know, certainly, the potential for, you know, continued or an increase in in competitiveness on on deposit pricing will play a role, but the experience in the first quarter is the biggest factor.

Speaker 5

Thanks for that. Robin, just remind us of your overall interest rate sensitivity as you see it today.

Speaker 6

Yes. I mean, I'd like

Speaker 3

to say we're relatively neutral. We're actually slightly asset sensitive in that, but relatively neutral. So that's what we would expect in a down and or an up scenario.

Speaker 5

Okay. And then as far as the higher nonaccrual loan that was mentioned in prepared remarks, any more color on this one? Think you mentioned cross border exposure. Any specific industry?

Speaker 3

There was a little cross border element to it, and that was just with with their manufacturing. So, you know, I'd put it in in that space, for you. As Neil mentioned, I mean, you know, we're we're gonna see lumpiness on occasion, and we're seeing a little bit of that. That was the real driver on our NPA experience this quarter. We did see some outflow.

Speaker 3

But as Neil mentioned, was about a $13,000,000 size credit that we saw on the inflow side.

Speaker 6

Okay. Thanks

Speaker 5

for taking my questions.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

That concludes our Q and A session. I'll now turn the conference back over to Neil Arnold for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you all for joining our call this morning. As always, we appreciate your continued interest in First Sun. Have a great day. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. Your line will now be disconnected.

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