Q3 2024 Dime Community Bancshares Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Stuart Lubow; President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Director; Dime Community Bancshares Inc

Avi Reddy

Steve Moss; Analyst; Raymond James

Manuel Navas; Analyst; D.A. Davidson

Mark Fitzgibbon; Analyst; Piper Sandler

Matthew Breese; Analyts; Stephens Inc

Christopher O'Connell; Analyts; Woods

Presentation

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Dime Community Bank Shares Inc, third quarter earnings conference call. Before we begin, the company would like to remind you that discussions during this call contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements including as set forth in today's press release and the company's filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to which we refer you.
During this call. References will be made to non-GAAP financial measures as supplemental measures to review and assess operating performance.
These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with the US GAAP.
For information about these non-GAAP measures and for reconciliation to GAAP. Please refer to today's earnings release
(Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today. Stuart Lubow, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Stuart Lubow

Good morning. Thank you, Didi, and thank you all for joining us this morning for our quarterly earnings call. Joining me today is Avi Reddy, our CFO.
In the third quarter, Dime continued to execute on our growth plan. The momentum in our business is extremely strong and in the third quarter, we grew core deposits by over $500 million and the business loan portfolio by $125 million. As a result of strong growth in core deposits and a 4 basis point reduction in the cost of total deposits, the net interest margin increased to 250 basis points.
To put things in perspective, our margin for the first quarter of 2024 was 221 basis points, implying a 29 basis point improvement through the third quarter. As we outlined in our press release, since the Federal Reserve reduced Fed funds rate by 50 basis points in mid-September, the spread between loans and core deposits has increased by approximately 15 basis points, and this will contribute to continued NIM expansion in the fourth quarter. Avi will provide more detail in his remarks, but suffice to say, we have a clear line of returning to a 3% plus net interest margin.
In summary, the improvement in NIM to date and our expectations for forward NIM significantly increases Dime’s earnings power.
Cash and non-interest expense levels increased on a linked quarter basis to $57.4 million. Our expectation is to keep expense levels relatively flat in the fourth quarter and into 2025, as we are working on a number of efficiency optimization initiatives.
Business loans were up approximately $125 million in the quarter, and we continue to see a very strong pipeline in our market C&I and healthcare lending verticals. The weighted average rate on new business loans originations for the third quarter was approximately 8%. We expect to end the year with approximately $11 billion of total gross loans.
Asset quality continues to remain solid, and net charge offs remain well contained at only 15 basis points. While NPAs ticked up off a very low starting base, we expect to report in our 10-Q that criticized and classified assets are flat on a linked quarter basis, and early stage 30 to 89 day delinquencies are down 28% on a linked quarter basis.
Our capital ratios continue to build, and at September 30, our total capital was 14.8%, and our common equity Tier 1 ratio was 10.2%. As we have mentioned before, in this environment, accreting capital is important as it speaks of Dime's strength and our ability to service our growing customer base. In that vein, in the third quarter, we built our loan loss reserve by approximately 9% or 6 basis points.
As I mentioned during our last earnings call, over the course of the next 9 to 12 months, as we evolve our business model and portfolio towards business loans, and with our strong pipeline of C&I and healthcare loans, we expect to operate with the reserve level in the 90 basis point to 1% area.
Finally, I'd like to conclude by touching on three themes that are key to Dime's story going forward. The first is disruption, the disruption in our local marketplaces. As you know, Dime has been highly successful in attracting teams of deposit gatherers and lenders, and the growth in core deposits and business loans to date is a validation of our efforts.
The disruption in levels in our market continue to be at all time high and we are actively building our recruiting pipeline for 2025. Given, we are close to year end, we don't expect to make any announcements until 2025, but suffice to say, we are spending a fair bit of time interviewing candidates that fit well with the Dime culture and business model.
Second topic is declining rates. While we have been pleased with the NIM trajectory over the course of this year, the expansion we have seen thus far has not been driven by lower interest rates. This should change starting in the fourth quarter as the full impact of the 50 basis point cut will manifest. Given the forward curve, we are more confident than ever that returning to historical profitability levels is -- to be seen in the near term.
Finally, growth in DDA. Our DDA levels are now back to almost 30% of deposits and we believe the value of this DDA base will shine through in the current rate environment. In conclusion, I'm looking forward to ending this year strong. I want to thank all our dedicated employees for their efforts in positioning Dime as the best business bank in New York.
With that, I will turn the call over to Avi.