Bridgewater Bancshares, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Bridgewater Bunchers 2025 first quarter earnings call. My name is Konstantinos and I will be your conference operator today. All participants have been placed in listen-only mode. After Bridgewater's opening remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star then 1 on your touchstone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To restore your question, please press star then 2. Please note that today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to introduce Justin Horstman, Vice President of Investor Relations, to begin the conference call. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Konstantinos, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on today's call are Jerry Bach, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joe Schabowski, President and Chief Financial Officer, Nick Place, Chief Banking Officer, and Jeff Shelberg, Chief Credit Officer. In just a few moments, we will provide an overview of our 2025 first quarter financial results. We will be referencing a slide presentation that is available on the investor relations section of Bridgewater's website, investors.bridgewaterbankmn.com. Following our opening remarks, we will open the call for questions. During today's presentation, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. We caution that such statements are predictions and that actual results may differ materially. Please see the forward-looking statement disclosure in the slide presentation and our 2025 first quarter earnings release for more information about risks and uncertainties which may affect us. The information we will provide today is as of and for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, and we undertake no duty to update the information. We may also disclose non-GAAP financial measures during this call. We believe certain non-GAAP financial measures, in addition to the related GAAP measures, provide meaningful information to investors to help them understand the company's operating performance and trends, and to facilitate comparisons with the performance of our peers. We caution that these disclosures should not be viewed as a substitute for operating results determined in accordance with GAAP. Please see our slide presentation and 2025 first quarter earnings release for reconciliations of non-GAAP disclosures to the comparable GAAP measures. I would now like to turn the call over to Bridgewater's Chairman and CEO, Jerry Bach.

Thank you, Justin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. I am pleased to report on Bridgewater's strong first quarter with adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents, excluding merger-related expenses. We saw a continuation of momentum and trends that began in 2024. Our strong quarter was highlighted by robust balance sheet growth and net interest margin expansion. Generating strong loan growth has always been a strength of Bridgewater. But with our increased focus on core deposit growth over the past two years, including 8% annualized growth in this first quarter, we are well positioned to again be more offensive minded on the loan front. In addition, we have seen increased loan demand in our market, driving our pipelines to the highest level since 2022. As a result, first quarter loan balances increased 16% on an annualized basis. We're thrilled with our team's commitment to our solid client base. We saw net interest margin expansion accelerate during the quarter, climbing 19 basis points. This was driven by lower deposit pricing, the continued higher pricing of loan yields, as well as some accretion benefit. With our strong balance sheet growth coupled with the higher margin, we were able to execute on driving continued net interest income growth during the quarter. The overall asset quality of our loan portfolio remains superb. as we had no net charge-offs during the quarter, while market trends in the Twin Cities remained favorable. Our credit and lending teams partnered together to ensure our credit quality remains a focus independent of market fluctuations. We did move one central business district office loan to non-accrual, which increased non-performing assets to .20% of assets. This did not come as a surprise, as it was a loan we have been referencing in prior quarters. Jeff will provide some more details in a few minutes. Overall, we believe the superb asset quality track record we have demonstrated over the years remains intact and we feel good about the portfolio. Finally, we continue to focus on creating shareholder value. One of the ways we do this is by consistently growing tangible book value, as you can see on slide four. I want to note we saw our first decline in eight years last quarter, all due to the first Minnetonka Citibank acquisition. But as expected, tangible book value bounced right back in the first quarter, up 12% annualized. In addition, given the valuation during the quarter, we opportunistically repurchased about $600,000 of common stock. I also want to take a moment to talk about the market volatility we have seen over the past several weeks. The concern over the effects of tariffs certainly create a more challenging operating environment by introducing uncertainty that can impact everything from the ability of our clients to do business to the path of interest rates. It is still early in the process with nothing fully resolved, but we are actively reaching out to clients to understand any concerns or possible impacts. We also are reviewing our portfolio to identify potential areas of enhanced risk. We are continuing to operate a best-in-class organization with seasoned and emergent talent across the company. We see real opportunities, even as we operate business as usual, to gain market share by supporting existing clients and bringing new ones on board. We are expanding our market reach with a good example of being the traction we continue to generate in our affordable housing vertical, which Nick will take a moment to talk about later. With that, I'll turn it over to Joe.