Investar Holding Corporation Announces 2024 Third Quarter Results
ACCESS Newswire · Investar Holding Corporation

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BATON ROUGE, LA / ACCESSWIRE / October 21, 2024 / Investar Holding Corporation ("Investar") (NASDAQ:ISTR), the holding company for Investar Bank, National Association (the "Bank"), today announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. Investar reported net income of $5.4 million, or $0.54 per diluted common share, for the third quarter of 2024, compared to net income of $4.1 million, or $0.41 per diluted common share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, and net income of $2.8 million, or $0.28 per diluted common share, for the quarter ended September 30, 2023.

On a non-GAAP basis, core earnings per diluted common share for the third quarter of 2024 were $0.45 compared to $0.36 for the second quarter of 2024, and $0.33 for the third quarter of 2023. Core earnings exclude certain items including, but not limited to, (gain) loss on call or sale of investment securities, net, loss on sale or disposition of fixed assets, net, loss (gain) on sale of other real estate owned, net, change in the fair value of equity securities, income from a legal settlement, gain on early extinguishment of subordinated debt, and legal settlement expense (refer to the Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures tables for a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP metrics).

Investar's President and Chief Executive Officer John D'Angelo commented:

"Investar had a solid third quarter, and I am pleased with our results as we continued to execute our strategy of consistent, quality earnings through the optimization of our balance sheet. Our net interest margin improved to 2.67% as we remained focused on originating higher yielding loans and securing lower cost funding sources that are accretive to our margin. During the third quarter, we originated and renewed loans, 77% of which were variable-rate loans, at an 8.5% blended interest rate. Book value per common share and tangible book value per common share reached record highs of $24.98 and $20.73, respectively, at September 30, 2024. Our GAAP and core metrics for diluted earnings per share, return on average assets, and efficiency ratio also improved from the prior quarter.

Our efforts to focus on underwriting high quality credits that are less susceptible to the effects of a potential economic downturn are producing results. Credit quality continued to strengthen as nonperforming loans were only $4.1 million, or 0.19% of total loans at September 30, 2024.

Finally, I could not be more confident about the future of Investar. We have worked hard to optimize our asset mix and funding sources, and, as a result, we believe our liability sensitive balance sheet positions us well to benefit from potential additional rate cuts. Additionally, we are continually evaluating opportunities to optimize our physical branch and ATM footprint to deliver products and services to our customers more efficiently to improve our financial performance over time.