OceanFirst Financial Corp.

Thank you all for attending. I'd like to welcome you all to the Ocean First Financial Corp Q225 earnings call. My name is Brika and I will be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Alfred Goon, Investor Relations at Ocean First. Thank you. You may proceed.

Thank you, Brieca. Good morning and welcome to the Ocean First second quarter 2025 earnings call. I am Alfred Goon, SVP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Before we kick off the call, we'd like to remind everyone that our quarterly earnings release and related earnings supplement can be found on the company website, oceanfirst.com. Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements and may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. All participants should refer to our SEC filings, including those found on forms, a.k.a. 10Q and 10K, for complete discussion of forward-looking statements and any factors that can cause actual results to differ from those statements. Thank you, and now I will turn the call over to Christopher Moore, Chairman and CEO.

Thank you, Alfred. Good morning, and thank you to all who have been able to join our second quarter of 2025 earnings conference call. This morning, I'm joined by our President, Joe LaBelle, and our Chief Financial Officer, Pat Barrett. We appreciate your interest in our performance and this opportunity to discuss our results with you. This morning, we'll provide brief remarks about the financial and operating performance for the quarter and some color regarding the outlook for our business. We may refer to the slides filed in connection with the earnings release throughout the call. After our discussion, we look forward to taking your questions. We reported our financial results for the second quarter, which included earnings per share of 28 cents on a fully diluted gap basis and 31 cents on a core basis. Before I walk through a few items, a summary of how we see the quarter may be helpful. This was an investment quarter as we added C&I Bankers, launched the Premier Bank, opened a commercial banking office in Melville, New York, and opened a new full-service branch in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, all of which increased expenses as we expected and as we had guided last quarter. Revenue growth has been on a strongly positive track, and we expect that to continue. while absolute expenses remain flat with some potential to decrease over time. As a result, we view the quarter as a trough in EPS that will build from this point as the organic growth momentum continues. We expect this progress to continue while credit performance remains among the best in our peer group. In terms of performance indicators, we were pleased to report a third consecutive quarter of growth in net interest income, which grew by $1 million, and continued stability in our net interest margin, which expanded by one basis point. Importantly, the loan growth in the quarter came late in June, so the quarterly results don't fully reflect the earnings power of the balance sheet, which is better positioned for additional improvements to net interest income in the third quarter. Total loans for the quarter increased $60 million, representing a 2% annualized growth rate, driven by strong originations of $716 million, The quarter also included strong growth in commercial and industrial loans, which increased 8 percent for the quarter, reflecting our focus in this segment. Operating expenses for the quarter were $71 million, in line with our expectations and previous guidance. Operating expenses included nearly a full quarter of the run rate from our recent commercial banking hiring efforts and the launch of the premier bank group. These additional bankers have been immediately productive. Joe will provide a detailed update on these initiatives in a moment. Asset quality remained very strong, as total loans classified as special mention and substandard decreased 3% to $145 million, or just 1.4% of total loans. Classified loan levels remained well below our long-term average and are substantially lower than our peer group. The quarterly provision was primarily driven by net charge-offs of $2.2 million, and by a mixed shift as commercial and industrial loans increased, while commercial real estate loans decreased slightly. Capital levels remained robust, with an estimated common equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 11% and tangible book value per share of $19.34. The quarter included a $17 million of share repurchases, or 1 million shares at a weighted average cost of $17.17, and the redemption of $57 million of preferred stock. With the existing share repurchase authorization nearly completed, On July 15th, the company authorized an additional 3 million shares available to be repurchased. This will allow us to remain flexible with our capital deployment. This week also, the Board also approved a quarterly cash dividend of 20 cents per common share. This is the company's 113th consecutive quarterly cash dividend. Finally, we're very pleased with our progress growing the commercial bank, which is on track for a strong third quarter. The commercial pipeline of $791 million is a record high, but we're seeing meaningful lending opportunities and early success gathering deposits. We expect an increase in net interest income in the third quarter and continued improvement to margins in the second half of the year. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Joe for additional color on the business.