Ameris Bancorp

Good day and welcome to the Ameris Bancorp Fair Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nicole Stokes, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Danielle, and thank you to all who have joined our call today. During the call, we will be referencing the press release and the financial highlights that are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at AmerisBank.com. I'm joined today by Palmer Proctor, our CEO, and Doug Strange, our Chief Credit Officer. Palmer will begin with some opening general comments, and then I'll discuss the details of our financial results before we open up for Q&A. But before we begin, I'll remind you that our comments may include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The actual results could vary materially. We list some of the factors that might cause results to differ in our press release and in our SEC filings, which are available on our website. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, early developments, or otherwise, except as required by law. Also during the call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures in reference to the company's performance. You can see our reconciliation of these measures and GAAP financial measures in the appendix to our presentation. And with that, I'll turn it over to Palmer for opening comments.

Thank you, Nicole, and good morning, everyone. I wanted to thank you all for taking the time to join our call today. I'm very pleased with the top-of-class third quarter financial performance we reported yesterday, as well as our outstanding year-to-date metrics. The fundamentals remain strong in the quarter as Marist continues to be a peer leader in most key metrics. As you can see, we remain focused on growing tangible book value per share as evidenced by our 19% annualized growth rate for the quarter. Over the last five years, our tangible book value has increased by a notable 85%. Our profitability remains strong with an above-peer PP&R ROA right at 2%, adjusted ROA of 143, and a return on tangible common equity at 15% in the quarter. Capital continues to grow with our TCE ratio now in the double digits at a healthy 10.2%. Common equity Tier 1 is also strong at over 12%. These strong capital levels give us a lot of optionality as we look forward to to explore additional growth opportunities within our attractive southeastern footprint, as well as increased capital returns. We improved our CRE concentration to capital ratio down to 270, which is a nice move down from our 295 peak a couple years ago. Our allowance for credit losses was stable in the quarter, representing a healthy 160 coverage ratio. Our third quarter margin of 351 remained well above peer levels this quarter. With our net interest income continuing to increase, this strong margin has benefited from our granular core deposit base and our DDA composition, which we were able to keep above 30% in the quarter, another top of class level. We have a proven culture of expense control, and we're able to reduce our efficiency ratio to 54% from 55% last quarter. Also during the quarter, we executed our second MSR sale of the year. this time selling most of our Ginnie Mae MSRs. This sale resulted in a pre-tax gain of over $5 million and helped to reduce our Ginnie Mae non-performing loans, which fell over 90% in the quarter. Finally, our earning asset base is diversified among both geographies and product types, and our average earning assets grew 7.6% annualized in the third quarter. Our southeast footprint is strong, which should allow us to enjoy continued growth when appropriate, as well as positive operating leverage. These highlights, along with our focus and discipline, are what really would drive our optimism for the remainder of this year and into 2025. I also wanted to mention that several pockets of our franchise were impacted by the two recent southeastern storms, Helene and Milton. I'm very proud of how our team responded before, during, and after the storm, taking care of our franchise and our customers. Fortunately for us, most of our locations did not experience significant damage and were back open in short order. In addition, I was pleased that the Ameris Foundation was able to commit funds to the American Red Cross to support recovery efforts in our impacted markets. Overall, I'm very proud of our team and the third quarter performance, which remains industry-leading and above peer levels. The future is bright here at Ameris, and we appreciate the continued support of our customers, teammates, and shareholders. I'll stop there now and turn it over to Cole to discuss our financial results in more detail.