Camden National Corporation

Good day and welcome to Camden National Corporation's fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. My name is Brika and I'll be your operator for today's call. All participants will be in a listen only mode during today's presentation. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you require operator assistance at any time during the call, please press star then zero. Please note this presentation contains forward-looking statements which involve significant risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary materially from those projected in the looking forward statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements are described in the company's earnings press release. The company's 2020 annual report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after forward-looking statements are made. Any references in today's presentation to non-GAAP financial measures are intended to provide meaningful insights and are reconciled with GAAP in your press release. Today's presenters are Greg Dufour, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mike Archer. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please note that this event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to Greg Dufour. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Brika, and welcome to Canada National Corporation's fourth quarter and 2021 earnings call. Joining me today is Mike Archer, who was named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer earlier this month, resulting from Greg White leaving us on January 3rd. I appreciate the work Greg did with us and wish him the best. Mike has been our corporate controller since 2013 and was a manager with PWC before joining us. During this time with us, Mike has worked on virtually every major strategic initiative we undertaken, ranging from our acquisition of the Bank of Maine in 2015 to helping to lead the organization during the pandemic. Before I turn the discussion over to Mike for more detailed financial review of the quarter, I'd like to make a few comments regarding 2021. We're pleased to report record earnings of $69 million or $4.60 per diluted share for 2021. This represents an increase of $9.5 million or $0.65 per diluted share over our previous earnings record in 2020. In 2021, we produced over $1 billion of residential mortgage originations, which we leveraged by recognizing $13.7 million of gain on sale of that production before shifting to holding more of those mortgages in the second quarter of 2021 due to the amount of liquidity we had on our balance sheet. Overall, we saw 7% loan growth from December 31st, 2020 to December 31st, 2021, or 10% when excluding a $99 million decrease in PPP loans. We also experienced 15% deposit growth over the year, which includes a 61% growth in non-interest-bearing deposits. We still view our core deposit base as one of our strengths, and we continue to invest in that area. In 2021, we redesigned our retail deposit product offerings, as well as experienced solid growth in our corporate treasury management area. Focusing on our customer relationships will position us for the future as the banking industry experiences changes in the amounts of deposits held by customers. Another area of strength is our asset quality. Non-performing loans, total loans, were 20 basis points at the end of 2021 compared to 32 basis points at the end of 2020. Our net charge-offs were negligible for the year at two basis points of average loans. Even though we released reserves during the year, our overall allowance of credit losses ended the year at 97 basis points of total loans, which is slightly higher than pre-pandemic lows. The main commercial market is very robust, and we're seeing good activity throughout the state. The New Hampshire and Massachusetts markets are even more active. With that said, the commercial markets are very competitive, and we continue to focus on ensuring appropriate credit structures which has served us well in the past. We've also continued to expand our lending capabilities and reach through strategic hires. This has allowed us to add seasoned lenders in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, while at the same time adding talent in our core Maine-based markets. During the fourth quarter, we announced a quarterly dividend of 40 cents, an increase of 11% over the last quarter. And this was our second dividend increase announced during 2020 and brought total dividends paid in the year to $1.48 per share, or 32% of earnings for the year. We also repurchased nearly 218,000 common shares during the year at an average price of $46.25, which fits into our earn back requirements. I'd be remiss if I did not recognize the hard work of the employees of Camden National throughout the year. The pandemic has impacted them significantly and I'm deeply appreciative as they've juggled their personal lives with the demands of their jobs. We've provided support to them by adopting a hybrid work environment as well as increasing our starting pay to $17 per hour and providing every employee with a 3% or more wage increase in October. In light of the challenges over the past few years, I find it remarkable that our engagement, as measured by Gallup, has increased from 4.09 on a five-point scale before the pandemic to 4.25 this year. This speaks to the commitment of all employees as well as their leaders. It's now my pleasure to turn the discussion over to Mike.

Thank you, Greg. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to join the call as the new CFO for Camden National. Since joining the company in 2013, I've been fortunate to have worked alongside two great predecessors that have served as great leaders and mentors. I'm truly excited to take on this new role alongside a talented group of executives and senior managers across the company. Earlier today we reported record earnings for the year of $69 million or $4.60 per diluted share and solid fourth quarter earnings of $16.5 million or $1.11 per diluted share. Net income for the year was up 16% over 2020 and fourth quarter net income was up 13% over the last quarter. Through strong earnings and certain capital deployment strategies, our return on tangible shareholders' equity for the year ended 2021 was 15.6%, and for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 14.7%. In total, the company returned over 31 million of capital to shareholders in 2021 through a combination of dividends and share buybacks. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the company announced its second dividend increase for the year, driving our quarterly dividend to 40 cents per common share. which is an increase of 21% over last year. Earlier this month, we announced the company's board of directors approved a new share repurchase program for up to 750,000 shares of the company's common stock. Subject to marketing conditions, the company expects to continue to buy back its common shares opportunistically through 2022. On a main quarter basis, revenues grew 3.1 million or 7% to 48.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase was driven by higher SBA PPP loan income of $734,000 as loan forgiveness accelerated heading into the end of the year, an increase in investment in loan balances, and the pickup in debit card income of $701,000 as we receive and recognize our annual transaction volume bonus from Visa in the fourth quarter each year. Loan growth was strong in the fourth quarter of 2021 at 4% or 5% adjusting for SBA PPP loans. The growth was primarily within the residential mortgage and commercial real estate loan portfolios, each growing 7% and 5% respectively during the fourth quarter. Through the fourth quarter, we continued with our strategy to hold more of our residential mortgage production in our loan portfolio as we looked to put excess liquidity to work while managing our interest rate risk position. For the quarter, we held 67% of our residential mortgage production in the loan portfolio. Our current view of the residential mortgage business in 2022 was consistent with that of the industry, and we anticipate slowing production compared to the past two years as we come off of back-to-back record-setting years. In recent quarters, we've seen refinance activity continue to decrease as a percentage of total production, dropping from 44% and 42% for the second and third quarters this past year, respectively, to 39% for the fourth quarter of 2021. With anticipated lower residential mortgage volumes, the ratio of mortgages held in our loan portfolio to mortgages sold will likely inch closer to 50-50 throughout the year, recognizing that this could shift as market conditions move. With that said, we currently expect that our first quarter 2022 ratio of residential mortgages held to sold will run a bit higher than a 50-50 mix as we turn through our year-end loan pipeline. Chris Conway- Investments grew 4% during the quarter to 1.5 billion and represented 28% of total assets at as of December 31 2021 up slightly from 27% as of the end of the last quarter. Chris Conway- Investment growth throughout the year has been a primary means to deploy access cash and return for higher yielding assets. Chris Conway- While our preference continues to be deploying access cash through a loan growth and through loan growth and managing our funding, we will continue to use this investment strategy as needed. Net interest margin for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 2.82%, up six basis points over the third quarter of 2021, as we benefited from an increase in SBA PPP income, contributing an additional nine basis points to margin. Our core net interest margin, which excludes the impact of SBA PPP loans and excess liquidity, decreased three basis points on a linked quarter to 2.79%. driven primarily by residential mortgage loans being originated at lower yields than our current portfolio. At this point, we believe our core net interest margin has largely leveled off. Being asset sensitive, our core net margin has upside potential should the Fed increase interest rates, but we remain cautious as it is unclear on how the long end of the curve would respond. For the fourth quarter of 2021, we recorded $1.2 million of provision expense driven by our favorable loan growth during the quarter, bringing our allowance for credit losses to $33.3 million at December 31, 2021. Our allowance for credit losses at December 31 was 0.97% of total loans, which was flat with last quarter but remained elevated over pre-pandemic levels. As Greg noted earlier, our asset quality at year-end remained very strong with nonperforming assets of just 13 basis points of total assets and our allowance coverage ratio being nearly five times non-performing loans. Non-interest expense for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $27 million, an increase of 3% over the third quarter of 2021. The increase over last quarter was driven by, one, our continued enhancements to our information security infrastructure as we continue to work to invest in technology systems and processes. to improve our overall posture and protect our customers. Secondly, increased occupancy and other employee-related costs, as many of our teams transitioned back to the office in the fall months, as well as other normal seasonal costs. And last, higher consulting fees. Compensation-related costs were lower 4% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to last quarter, which helped offset these higher costs. The decrease was largely the result of lower incentive accruals between quarters as employee turnover in the fourth quarter led to the release of built-up accruals. Not unlike the rest of the market, higher vacancies from employee turnover continues to persist. As discussed on our last call, we have taken certain actions to address employee retention. In October, we increased our starting wage by $2 to $17 per hour and provided a wage increase to all employees of at least 3%. The impact of fourth quarter 2021 compensation was an increase of just over 400,000, but as we move forward, this expense increase will largely be neutralized by the freezing of our profit sharing plan. As we enter 2022, we do so from a position of strength. Our capital position remains strong with a tangible common equity ratio of 8.22% and regulatory capital levels well in excess of requirements as of December 31st, 2021. Our loan deposit ratio was 74% at year end, slightly up from our ratio at September 30, 2021, of 72%, but still well below our historical norm. Our strong deposit growth over the past year, 15%, puts us in a great position to capitalize on continued efficient growth. This concludes our comments on our fourth quarter results. We'll now open the call out for questions. Thank you.