Southside Bancshares, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Southside Bank Shares, Inc. second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Lindsey Bell, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Justin. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Southside Bank Shares' second quarter 2023 earnings call. A transcript of today's call will be posted on southside.com under Investor Relations. During today's call and in other disclosures and presentations, I will remind you that any forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainty. Factors that could materially change our current forward-looking assumptions are described in our earnings release and our Form 10-K. Joining me today are Lee Gibson, President and CEO, and Julie Schamberger, CFO. First, Lee will share his comments on the quarter, and then Julie will give an overview of our financial results. I will now turn the call over to Lee.

Thank you, Lindsey. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Southside Bank Shares 2023 Second Quarter Earnings Call. This morning, we reported net income of 24.9 million, earnings per share of 81 cents, a return on average assets of 1.29 percent, a return on average tangible common equity of 18.59 percent, and continued strong asset quality metrics. During the quarter, we experienced strong loan growth, 80% of which occurred during June. In fact, approximately 52% of the second quarter loan growth occurred in the last two weeks of June. Our loan pipeline remains strong, and we are projecting healthy construction loan advances for the remainder of the year. We are continuing to budget for overall loan growth for 2023 in the high single digits. Our net interest margin held in well during the quarter, contracting only four basis points. Late second quarter loan growth, along with our interest rate swaps, fair value hedges, and Fed term funding, should help mitigate most, if not all, any further net interest margin compression during the third quarter. Length quarter deposits, net of brokered and public fund deposits, increased 73 million, or 1.6%. In July, we began offering Intrify to deposit customers with deposit insurance concerns. We anticipate this will assist with deposit growth in the coming quarters. We are glad to report that the markets we serve remain healthy and continue to grow and perform well. I look forward to answering your questions following Julie's remarks, and I will now turn the call over to Julie.