Sturgis Bancorp Reports Earnings f
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6.06 0.0 (0.00%) Sturgis Bancorp Reports Earnings for 2012 |
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| Sturgis Bancorp, Inc . (OTCBB: STBI) announced a net income of $1.9 million for 2012, and net income of $345,000 for the fourth quarter of 2012, Eric L. Eishen, President and CEO, announced today. Sturgis Bancorp is the holding company for Sturgis Bank & Trust Company (Bank), and its subsidiaries Oakleaf Financial Services, Inc. and Oak Mortgage, LLC. Sturgis Bancorp provides a full array of trust, commercial and consumer banking services from 11 banking centers in Sturgis, Bronson, Centreville, Climax, Colon, South Haven, Three Rivers and White Pigeon, Mich. Oakleaf Financial Services offers a complete range of investment and financial-advisory services. Oak Mortgage offers residential mortgages in all markets of the Bank. Key Highlights for 2012:
Nonaccrual loans decreased to $7.2 million, or 2.83% of gross loans on December 31, 2012. Nonaccrual loans peaked in June 2011 at $14.5 million, and were reduced to $10.5 million at December 31, 2011. President and CEO Eishen stated: "I am pleased to announce earnings for 2012. They are up significantly from the last few years and are returning to more normal levels. Credit quality is improving and the interest margin is stable. Mortgage banking activity has been a strong part of the Bank's historical earnings streams. Sturgis Bank & Trust Company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Oak Mortgage continue to dominate our home market in St. Joseph County Michigan. Since the Bank retains 100% of the mortgage servicing, we are building additional relationships while maintaining existing relationships in our market. This provides the opportunity to provide other financial services to our customers. Another wholly-owned subsidiary had a very successful year as well. Oakleaf Financial Services returned to more normal earnings levels, partially due to the positive performance of the stock market. Many of the accounts managed are fee based relationships and this provides a much more stable income stream to the Bank. The Bank has also continued to decrease its reliance on non-core funding sources, with consistent growth of core deposits. All of these factors have made your Bank more valuable at the end of 2012." Year 2012 vs. 2011 - Net income for the year ended December 31, 2012 increased to $1.9 million, or $0.92 per share from net income of $501,000, or $0.25 per share, for 2011. Net interest income decreased 1.4% to $9.6 million, from $9.8 million for 2011. The decrease in net interest income is primarily due to the decrease in average earning assets to $276.4 million in 2012 from $307.0 million in 2011. The tax equivalent net interest margin increased to 3.52% in 2012 from 3.22% in 2011. The decrease in assets was used to fund planned reductions in deposit liabilities and borrowings, especially in the second half of 2011. Noninterest income was $4.7 million for 2012, compared to $4.5 million for 2011. The Company realized no gains on sales of available-for-sale securities in 2012, compared to $536,000 in 2011. Mortgage banking activities increased $460,000 to $1.2 million, as proceeds from loan sales increased to $47.6 million from $24.4 million in 2011. Commission income from Oakleaf Financial Services, a Bank-owned subsidiary, increased $359,000 to $1.5 million in 2012. Noninterest expense decreased $947,000 for 2012, compared to 2011. The largest component of noninterest expense is salaries and employee benefits, which decreased $406,000, or 6.1%, to $6.3 million in 2012. Real estate owned expense also decreased $259,000 to $745,000. The early extinguishment of repurchase agreements incurred a one-time prepayment penalty of $195,000 in 2011. The Company provided $545,000 to the allowance for loan losses in 2012, compared to $1.6 million in 2011. Net charge-offs were $1.3 million in 2012, compared to $2.4 million in 2011. The net activity in the ALLL decreased the total allowance to 2.02% of gross loans at December 31, 2012, compared to 2.28% of gross loans at December 31, 2011. Total assets increased to $317.0 million at December 31, 2012 from $314.3 million at December 31, 2011, primarily in interest-earning deposits in banks. Loans decreased $3.5 million from 2011. Closed-end residential mortgage loans increased, while net decreases were realized in home equity lines of credit, commercial and construction loans. Noninterest-bearing deposits increased to $41.3 million at December 31, 2012 from $33.6 million at December 31, 2011. Interest-bearing deposits decreased to $193.7 million at December 31, 2012 from $201.0 million at December 31, 2011. The decrease in interest-bearing deposits includes $1.6 million in brokered deposits and $3.4 million in non-brokered certificates of deposit with balances of $100,000 and greater. Despite the decrease in balances, the number of checking accounts increased throughout 2012, as the Bank continues to expand its customer base. The Company paid no cash dividends in 2012, compared to $0.03 per common share, totaling $60,000, in 2011. Total equity was $26.9 million at December 31, 2012, compared to $24.9 million at December 31, 2011. Book value per share increased to $13.21 at December 31, 2012 from $12.34 at December 31, 2011. Mr. Eishen added, "The question on cash dividend is occasionally raised with me and I am asked when the Bancorp may return to paying a cash dividend. As a reminder to past shareholders, the Company has paid special dividends during very good performance years and has also redeemed approximately 1,100,000 shares over the past several years. These actions have been beneficial to the long-term value of your Bancorp Stock, and have also resulted in the distribution of equity. My answer to anyone asking this question is that I will recommend cash dividends once the expectations of our Regulatory examiners is clear. It was a surprise to the industry when Basel III was to be applied to even the smallest banks in our Nation. This is an international capital standard and it is my understanding that it would only be applied to internationally significant banks. I was not alone in this expectation. In addition to this, it is apparent that the Regulators are interested in having capital levels that far exceed 'well capitalized' under the regulatory framework for corrective action. The bottom line is that the banking industry does not have a clear definition of what is expected. There have been suggestions that Tier One Capital should be at least 10.0%. Without the repurchase of shares, our Bank would be significantly above this level. We have operated the Bank under the premise that capital is scarce and must be properly managed. In years we did not see reasonable growth potential and could not leverage excess equity safely, we repurchased shares with the intention of returning excess equity to investors. There are many banks that did not follow that business model and they no longer exist. They leveraged capital by aggressively lending in areas they did not fully understand. Bank investors can easily identify these banks and, in hindsight, can see the error they made. While we have not been unscathed by the crisis, we have made it through the most difficult economic times witnessed in recent memory and remained profitable through most of the crisis." During the worst part of the national financial crisis, the Company began including expanded ratios for the Bank's asset quality in quarterly press releases. Because the Company believes these ratios remain meaningful and relevant to investors, the Company has elected to continue providing them.
Fourth Quarter of 2012 vs. 2011 - Net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 decreased to $345,000, or $0.17 per share, from $560,000, or $0.28 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2011. The primary component of the decrease is higher provision for loan losses. Net interest income decreased $23,000, with both quarters rounded at $2.4 million. The decrease is primarily due to reductions in average interest-earning assets. The tax-equivalent net interest margin decreased to 3.48% in 2012 from 3.49% in the last quarter of 2011. Noninterest income was $1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to $957,000 for the fourth quarter of 2011. The largest component of this increase was mortgage banking income, which increased $222,000 to $369,000. Commissions from Oakleaf Financial Services also increased $140,000 to $415,000. Noninterest expense increased $103,000, or 3.7%, primarily due to $81,000 increase in real estate owned expenses. Net charge-offs for the fourth quarter of 2012 were $827,000, compared to $404,000 a year ago. The Company provided $491,000 for loan losses in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to ($91,000) in the fourth quarter of 2011. This release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. These statements appear in several places in this release and include statements regarding intent, belief, outlook, objectives, efforts, estimates or expectations of Bancorp, primarily with respect to future events and the future financial performance of the Bancorp. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statement. Factors that could cause a difference between an ultimate actual outcome and a preceding forward-looking statement include, but are not limited to, changes in interest rates and interest rate relationships; demand for products and services; the degree of competition by traditional and non-traditional competitors; changes in banking laws and regulations; changes in tax laws; changes in prices, levies, and assessments; the impact of technological advances; government and regulatory policy changes; the outcome of any pending and future litigation and contingencies; trends in consumer behavior and ability to repay loans; and changes of the world, national and local economies. Bancorp undertakes no obligation to update, amend or clarify forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The numbers presented herein are unaudited. For additional information, visit our website at www.sturgisbank.com .
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