Southside Bancshares, Inc.

and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Southside Bank Shares, Inc. First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lindsay Bales, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lisa. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Southside Bank Shares' first quarter 2025 earnings call. A transcript of today's call will be posted on southside.com under Investor Relations. During today's call and other disclosures and presentations, I will remind you that Any forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties. Factors that could materially change our current forward-looking assumptions are described in our earnings release in our Form 10-K. Joining me today are CEO Lee Gibson, President Keith Donahoe, and CFO Julie Schamburger. First, Lee will start us off with his comments on the quarter, then Keith will discuss loans and credit, and then Julie will give an overview of our financial results. I will now turn the call over to Lee.

Thank you, Lindsay, and welcome to today's call. Overall, we had a solid first quarter with net income of 21.5 million, resulting in diluted earnings per share of 71 cents, an annualized return on average assets of 1.03 percent, and an annualized return on average tangible common equity of 14.14 percent. Linked quarter, we experienced a 94.4 million or 2% reduction in loans due to payoff activity primarily in our CRE portfolio that exceeded our original expectations. We do not believe the first quarter is indicative of where we will end 2025 as we still anticipate mid single-digit loan growth this year. Keith will provide additional details related to the first quarter loan activity, our current loan pipeline, and non-performing assets. Linked quarter declines in loans and securities, a restructuring of $120 million in securities early in the first quarter, combined with an increase in deposits of $91.9 million net of broker and public fund deposits, resulted in a three-basis point increase in our net interest margin to 2.86% and an increase in our net interest income of $145,000. Our ability to lower our overall funding costs more than offset the impact of the $160 million in cash flow swaps that matured in the first quarter that had an average weighted rate of 78 basis points. Based on discussions with our customers related to the recent uncertainty in the markets surrounding tariff announcements and the ongoing related negotiations, overall, we are optimistic. While it is too early to discern the likely outcome of these negotiations, we will remain vigilant. Currently, the markets we serve remain healthy and the Texas economy is anticipated to grow at a faster pace than the overall projected U.S. growth rate. I look forward to answering your questions and will now turn the call over to Keith.