Loading...
•
Mar 31, 2024
First Financial Q1 2024 Earnings Report
Reported net income of $50.7 million and EPS of $0.53.
Key Takeaways
First Financial Bancorp reported a net income of $50.7 million, or $0.53 per diluted common share, for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The company's return on average assets was 1.18%, and the net interest margin was 4.05%. Agile Premium Finance was acquired during the quarter, contributing to loan growth.
Earnings per diluted share were $0.53, or $0.59 on an adjusted basis.
Return on average assets was 1.18%, or 1.30% on an adjusted basis.
Net interest margin on FTE basis was 4.10%.
Loan growth of $271.9 million, representing 10.0% on an annualized basis.
First Financial
First Financial
Forward Guidance
The company expects another strong year, encouraged by the results and trends from Q1 2024.
Positive Outlook
- Repositioning the investment portfolio is expected to enhance asset yields going forward.
- Workforce efficiency initiative resulted in the reduction of 43 associates during the quarter.
- Agile acquisition is expected to further diversify the loan portfolio.
- Agile operates an impressive business model, which originates high-quality, short duration loans at attractive yields.
- Asset quality was stable for the quarter.
Challenges Ahead
- The company is in a difficult operating environment for the industry.
- Continued rise of funding costs negatively impacted the net interest margin.
- Average deposit growth slowed for the quarter to a 2.3% annualized growth rate and included a seasonal outflow of business deposits in the first part of the quarter.
- Loss on the sale of investment securities associated with the repositioning of a portion of the investment portfolio.
- Expenses increased on a linked quarter basis, mostly related to seasonal employee costs and variable compensation tied to the increase in fee income.