4/16/2021

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

Good day and welcome to the Home Bank Shares, Inc. First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Donna Townsend. Please go ahead.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, Elisa. I'm Donna Townsville, Director of Investor Relations, and our management team would like to thank you for joining our first quarterly conference call of 2021. Reporting today will be our Chairman, John Allison, Tracy French, President and CEO of Centennial Bank, Brian Davis, our Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Hester, Chief Lending Officer, Chris Poulton, President of CCFG, John Marshall, President of Shore Premier Finance, and Stephen Tipton, Chief Operating Officer. Hopefully by now, you have had the opportunity to review our proxy and read about the work that we have done in the last year on our ESG initiative. While our work is not complete, we have made great strides, and this will be an ongoing effort at home. Some other exciting news that I'd like to share is on Tuesday, home was named to the Forbes list of World's Best Banks. We made this list last year, and we have also been named to Ford's Best Banks in America every year since 2015. One aspect of this is a performance metric, and the other aspect is driven by customer service. And because of that, that makes us very proud that we continue to excel in both of these categories. Now, for our first report on the quarter, we will hear from our chairman, John Allison. John Allison

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Thank you, Donna. That was a nice award. We continue to stack them up over a period of time. Welcome to Home Bank Chair's first quarter earnings release and conference call. My name is John Allison, and I have the honor to serve as your executive chairman, president, chief executive officer, and I'm also a co-founder of the company. We're here to discuss the results of our first quarter 21 performance. Donna mentioned the press release. You've probably seen it. first quarter, from a pure net profit and revenue perspective, was the most powerful quarter in the company's almost 22-year history, resulting in a record net income of $91.6 million. That's another world record for our company, as one of our former teammates would say. Home Bank Shares is known for being one of the top-performing banking corporations in America for the last 10 to 15 years, and this quarter was no different. Sales revenue was off the charts with total revenue of $207,927,000, a best ever. That's total revenue. But what's more important is how much of the total revenue did we bring down to the bottom line after tax for our shareholders. Well, I want you to know that of the gross $207 million, we brought 44.05% to the after tax bottom line. or $91.6 million that is available to our shareholders. In addition, the total revenue, our net revenue, was also the highest it had ever been at 193.4. I think that's a beat on the street, but our company also brought 47.36% of the net revenue after tax to the bottom line. These numbers reflect the earnest power of your company through the low cost of funds, strong yields, and best-in-class efficiency, it resulted in another high watermark for our shareholders of $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter. PPRN also hit a new record high of $120.5, representing a P5NR of 62.32. That means that we brought 62.32% of the net revenue to the pre-tax, pre-provision shoebox. as our longtime director, Alex Leblon, has labeled it. Here's some additional highlights. Pre-tax, pre-provision ROA was 2.92. I think that's a record. I think that's the best. After-tax ROA, 2.22. Return on tangible common equity, 22.90. That's one of the best ever. I think we've had one better than that. Earnings per share, 55 cents. That is the best. And on the NEM, interestingly enough, we increased our NEM by two basis points to 402 from four basis points. Reserve to loans, without the PPP loans, remains at 2.40. Stable asset quality, overall yields have remained strong at 5.56. Now, that includes accretion of in-income and PPP. And without those, the yield was 5.16. Mortgage produced another strong quarter with $8,167,000 versus last year at $2.6 million. Efficiency ratio of 36.6%. That's got to be best in class or right at it. Are you happy with that, Donna? You happy with the 36%? You're the efficiency lady.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Considering the size of the bank and the regulatory standards, Hurdles we've overcome in the last few years, I'm happy to be below 40%, but I know that we will probably be challenged to continue to push that downward.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

I agree with that. That sure is fun to talk about when you get it. First quarter loan originations were $671,650,000 at 5.10. We only funded 250. It kind of came late in the quarter. March origination was the highest, by the way. of the quarter, and it was right at $320 million. 75% of the originations came from the community footprint. But, you know, 671, we need a little more than that, but it happened mostly in March. That appears to be continuing into April also. Last quarter I said I thought lone girls would come in the second half of the year, but it may be coming a little sooner than I expected. Negative side, we have payoffs of about $800 million in Q1. That's pretty much in line with what we had in Q4. Hopefully, that will slow down at some point in time, and we'll be able to match on the origination side. We had a $2 million charge-off. I just wanted to – the only reason I'm reporting on this $2 million charge-off was I made the statement to you all when we did our first fireside chat that I don't see any losses as a result of COVID. And I'm still saying that. This was a problem credit before the COVID-19. And I'm optimistic we're going to recover here, but the conservative nature of our group is that we charge it all. And that was 2 million of the 2.6 net or something?

speaker
Stephen Tipton
Chief Operating Officer

Two and a half net.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Two and a half net. Your team's also done a really good job. I found these numbers, and I hadn't been tracking them in the past. I mean, I track them, but not like year over year. This is year over year. cost of your liabilities versus your assets. Our total interest income for the year over year was down $9,524,000. That doesn't sound very good. But interest expense was down $17,887,000, which resulted in a positive net interest income of $8,363,000. That is a nice job by Our presidents and Stephen Tippin hawks that because Tracy hawks it every day. So good job, guys. That's pretty impressive numbers. That added $8.3 million to the earnings. So good job. Over the year, we have tried to position home to win. We've made several investments, both long-term and short-term, and we're continuing to do that again this year with all this excess cash. Last year, we purchased some underpriced, good dividend-paying bank stocks that have performed very nice for us. We're also in four or five different ventures that likewise have performed nicely for us. This quarter, we picked up several million dollars in income for the company. Now, past performance is no guarantee of future performance, but home is still in these investments. Our investments produced income of $9.5 million in 2020 years. And so far this year, they've produced $13.8 million. Home has continued to work on M&A and presently have active discussions going on, so stay tuned. On repurchase, we spent about $8.8 million in the first quarter, repurchased 330,000 shares at a weighted average price of $26.55. And we're continuing to be active through our 10b-5-1 even today. and we'll remain active the rest of the year. It certainly looks like home is off to a great start. Business is picking up, and I think we're in for a powerful recovery. My concerns center around inflation, which I think may already be out of control. A couple existing inflation with the new $2.7 trillion fiat money premium coming down the road, and we could be back to March 80 during the Carter administration. They also thought They could control inflation but had rates close to 20%. I wrote this, and then I'm watching TV yesterday, Tracy, and the talking head comes on, and he said, we're not careful. We'll be back where we were in the Carter administration. So I may not be the only one seeing it that way. Have you bought any gasoline lately? It's up 80 cents a gallon. Food is straight up. Lumber went from $300. a thousand board feet to $1,050. That's a 350% increase in the cost of lumber. I would hope that the Biden administration would shut down their discussions of a huge tax increase as we're just starting to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. I don't say this as a Democrat or Republican. I only say this as an American businessman that has the privilege of leading one of the best companies in America. The tax increase makes absolutely no sense to me. We're currently trying just to climb out of one. Instead of trying to suppress American business, the President should be offering ideas to help all businesses. Think about it. This is not the time for a tax increase. The talking heads on business channels say 2.25 to 2.50 on the 10-year by June is going to happen, and 3% by the end of the year. It's true. If that happens to be the case, and it may be, I personally kind of believe that, those banks riding fixed rates in the twos and the threes will pay the price, and those investing all of this excess liquidity they have into long-yielding, long-term securities will also pay the price. The risk is absolutely too dangerous for us. This is most of our largest personal asset, and I refuse myself, and our executive team does, of putting it in long-term fixed-rate securities and selling the future of our company. Those that remain disciplined, like home, will win the race. So when you get to the winner's circle, just look for home standing in the middle of the circle. I want to thank our teammates for an amazing start to 21 and the investment community for your trust that you've committed many years of that. Donna, I think it's a pretty good quarter, and I'm going to let you have the floor.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Okay. Well, thank you very much for that report, and that is fabulous revenue and EPS results, so congratulations to all. Now we will go to Tracy French for a report on Centennial Bank.

speaker
Tracy French
President and CEO of Centennial Bank

Thank you, Donna, and good afternoon to all. The first quarter for Centennial Bank and home bank shares is without question a throw-up to the report. In fact, we might be the safest banking institution in the nation, along with being one of the best or top performers in the country. The results of our group we'll share today are phenomenal and not only show what hard work delivers, but also managing each detail that turns out to be financially rewarding. Our banking company continues to work hard and remain disciplined in all areas of the bank by putting our customers first. For the shareholders, the report today is very rewarding. All of our regions had a great quarter. You will hear from Christopher and John in a moment. For Centennial Bank, our total net revenue was $192 million for the quarter, making our old-fashioned ROA, Johnny, 2.25%. Our return on average tangible common equity on GAAP was 21.03%. Our efficiency ratio was 35.36 with the last two quarters in the low 30, excuse me, last two months in the low 34s.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Great job, Trey.

speaker
Tracy French
President and CEO of Centennial Bank

Thank you. And now what we know as the Allison P5NR was at 63.56 for the first quarter. These numbers are what they are because of all the effort from every single person that works in our bank. Brian will share with you our capital position, which is very strong with our risk-based capital at 18.76%. Stephen will give the details on the loans and deposits as our excess cash has gone from over $1 billion at the beginning of the year to over $2 billion today with our liquidity ratio at 27.21%. Kevin will share the latest on our loan portfolio with a reported .66 non-performing to total loans while our allowance for loan loss excluding the PPP loans is at 2.4 at the end of the quarter. That makes up to be 383.47% allowance on our loans to non-performing loans. These reports represent a very profitable and safe company. As always, we are staying in touch with our customers. I'm glad to report all are doing better, and some have not missed a beat. Our markets and customers have navigated through this past year, and we believe the economy is doing fine, although the cost of operating that Johnny mentioned earlier is certainly up. Our regional leaders reported that most of our branches are open to full service. We were with the few that are not, which should be open by next week. Our customer activity is increasing in both loans and deposits. Loan production is showing good signs of growth along with our pipelines. Our deposit growth has been great, and our managers are working hard on the cost of these deposits. The loans that have been granted deferrals are showing much improvement, while some are back full speed. Even our hotel loans, excuse me, our airport hotel loans are feeling very good. Donna, I've always used the word better, as in getting better every day, every week, every month, and so on, and our company will continue those efforts for our shareholders. Thank you.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

I have no doubt that that's true, Tracy. Thank you for that report. Now we will turn to Brian Davis for a finance report.

speaker
Brian Davis
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Donna. I'm pleased to report $148.1 million of net interest income and a 4.02% net interest margin for Q1 2021. Our first quarter net interest margin increased two basis points from Q4. Today I would like to give you some color on the Q1 NIMS. First, during the first quarter, we had $314 million of PPP loans forgiven. This forgiveness caused the acceleration of deferred fee income for the loans forgiven. The deferred fee income increased $3.5 million from Q4 to Q1. The acceleration was nine basis points accretive to the NIM. Second, the COVID crisis and the resulting governmental response has created a tremendous amount of excess liquidity in the market. As a result of the excess liquidity, we had 581 million of additional interest bearing cash in Q1 compared to Q4. The excess liquidity was 16 basis points dilutive to the NIM. Third, for Q1, we recognized 1.1 million of event interest primarily from large payoffs. The 1.1 million of event interest plus three basis points accretive to the NIM. In conclusion, the nine basis points increase for PPP loans plus the three basis points for event interest income plus the 16 basis points decline for excess liquidity results in a net four basis points of noise when comparing linked quarters. With that said, our net interest margin is actually up six basis points on an apples to apples comparison. I'll conclude with a few remarks on capital. Our goal at Home Bank Shares is to be extremely well capitalized. I'm pleased to report the following strong capital information. For Q1 2021, our Tier 1 capital was $1.7 billion. Total risk-based capital was $2.2 billion, and risk-weighted assets were $11.7 billion. As a result, the leverage ratio was 11.1%, which is 122% above the well-capitalized benchmark of 5%. Common equity tier one was 14.3%, which is 120% above the well-capitalized benchmark of 6.5%. Tier one capsule was 14.9%, which is 86% above the well-capitalized benchmark of 8%. And the total risk-based capital was 18.8%, which is 88% above the well-capitalized benchmark of 10%. With that said, I'll turn the call back over to Donna. Donna?

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, Brian. Those are amazing capital ratios, aren't they?

speaker
Brian Davis
Chief Financial Officer

We're still good with all that money, Brian. Wow. I'm going to sleep with it underneath my pillow if that's okay, Mr. Allison.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

That'll work. Sleep well, Brian. Now Kevin Hester will update us on our loan portfolio.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

Thanks, Donna. The accomplishments on the lending side this quarter are very impressive. I'll begin with PPP. Round three approval and funding continues with the recent extension of the program through May 31st. Applications have certainly slowed down, but we have crossed the 4,000 loan approved mark. Those approved loans total about $350 million, and we have closed and funded just over $300 million of that amount. Rounds one and two forgiveness continue with over 550 million requested from SBA and over 450 million paid. We have initiated round three forgiveness as well, and we have a push to focus on these two efforts during the next two quarters. COVID modified loans showed little change during the first quarter. This was not unexpected because a large majority of the $330 million modification balance was placed on an 18 to 24-month interest-only modification just three months ago to provide the runway to weather the remainder of the pandemic. With the majority of these loans being hotels and just coming through the seasonally slow first quarter of the year, I didn't expect much movement in these balances. Two positive developments did occur, though. First, anecdotally, virtually all of our hotel operators have experienced a significant pickup in occupancy in March. And in the Florida market especially, we expect this pickup to continue throughout the year. Even our hotels that were dependent upon airport traffic are showing signs of life. Given that this is a March trend, we do not have hard numbers on these, but we do expect the April reports from our hoteliers to look much more favorable. In addition, since month end, the single largest deferred loan of $58 million went back to full payments, showing good occupancy and cash flow. This brings our overall modified loan balance to just below $270 million, or 2.5% of the loan portfolio. We are very encouraged by the improvements we're seeing around this segment of loans. As Johnny said, mortgage continues their strong showing from last year. First quarter closings were up 50% on a quarter-over-quarter basis, with secondary market loans consisting of over 80% of those balance, $100 million in each of the three months of the quarter, indicating a strong second quarter to be expected. Lastly, the accomplishments in the asset quality area are certainly worth discussing. Non-performing loans are 59 basis points, up only six basis points pre-COVID, and down seven basis points on a linked quarter basis. Non-performing assets are even better at 38 basis points, down six basis points pre-COVID, and down 10 basis points on a linked quarter basis. The allowance coverage of non-performing loans is at 384%. up 52% on a length quarter basis. Early-stage past dues remain very low at 46 basis points, which is below where we were pre-COVID. Combined with the encouraging reporting around modified loans, I feel very good about the asset quality of this company. We are seeing new lending opportunities in our markets, and despite the low pricing and high leverage we're seeing, I'm optimistic that the second half of the year will result in some organic loan growth. Donna, what a quarter. I'll turn it back over to you.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

I agree, Kevin, and that's good information on the hotel occupancy. That's great. Yes, yes. Next, we have Chris Poulton with our CCFG Division.

speaker
Chris Poulton
President of CCFG

Thank you, Donna, and good afternoon. The new year brought increased activity during the first quarter. Overall loan balances were roughly flat, and new fundings were offset by increased payoffs and paydowns, as loans that would have generally paid off in 2020 were able to finally execute refinancings and sales. During this time, we've been able to maintain margins and returns while ensuring our asset quality remains high. New loan commitments total close to $300 million, and we ended the quarter with over $300 million of loans that are approved, awaiting closing, or in active underwriting. By comparison, we generated $700 million in originations during all of 2020. Real estate values in our key New York and California markets appear to have stabilized with sales and leasing activity up significantly in Manhattan and Brooklyn during the quarter. Thus far, that trend has continued into Q2 as well. With that said, we remain our usual cautious selves and continue to focus on leverage and structure that reflects a post-pandemic environment. While many of our southern and southwestern markets have thrived over the past few months, we expect a recovery in New York in particular to take a bit longer to mature. During this time, we remain focused on our core purpose of building a portfolio that delivers above-average returns for below-average risk. With that, I'll turn it over to you, Donna.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, Chris. And now John Marshall will update us on Shore Premier.

speaker
John Marshall
President of Shore Premier Finance

Thank you, Donna, and good afternoon. I'm pleased to offer an update on Continual Marine Finance Division. The first quarter continued to reflect elevated activity as the 2020 consumer COVID yacht buying frenzy spilled over into the new year, tempered only by limited new boat inventories. We've seen our retail application shift from 80% new, 20% pre-owned to a 65-35 split. It's just because of the lack of new inventory. The quality of our applicants remains strong with declination rates dropping from 39% in 4Q20 to 32% in 1Q21. Funded retail loans were $50 million in the quarter, with average FICOs of $780 compared to $776 for full year 2020. Our commercial floor plan business was essentially flat in the quarter, as shipments of new boats from European factories have been pre-sold prior to arrival. Utilization rates on inventory lines remained at 30%, down from a customary 62%. It may be mid-2022 before dealer stocks are restored to historical levels. We're witnessing some pressure on marine margins as inventory lenders hungry for assets are unsatisfied. Dealer financial health is very strong as a result of this conversion of assets. The health of the consumer in commercial portfolios has been favorable as reflected in our asset quality metrics, achieving the lowest levels of delinquency and defaults since Shor was acquired by Centennial. A profit contribution continues to grow. An ROA in the quarter was 2.76%. Cash has emerged as a formidable competitor in the marine lending space. Coffers bulging with stimulus money have continued to accelerate our prepayment speeds, offsetting some organic growth. That look for marine is good. Factories are returning to sustainable production. Dealers are placing optimistic orders, and retail buyers are placing larger deposits on their next boats. Industry experts believe that COVID has pushed more consumers onto the water and with a long-term profound impact on the pleasure yachting industry. On that positive note, Donna, I return the discussion to you.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, John. And our final report today comes from Stephen Tipton.

speaker
Stephen Tipton
Chief Operating Officer

Thank you, Donna. I'll give color on deposit activity, repricing efforts and trends, and a few additional details on the balance sheet today. On the deposit side, the wave of liquidity continued in the first quarter of 2021 as total deposits increased $787 million from year end to just over $13.5 billion. That marks a nearly $2 billion increase or 17% year over year. Most importantly, our non-interest-bearing account balances increased nearly $600 million on a linked quarter basis and over $1.4 billion year over year. And today, non-interest-bearing balances stand at 29% of total deposits. We have mentioned over the past several quarters how fortunate we are to operate in states that did not shut down, states that have seen an increase in tourism and steady population growth. Of the increase in the overall deposit base in Q1, 542 million, or 69% of the increase, came from our four Florida regions, all of which had nine-figure increases in total deposits. While the increase is certainly attributable to the government's response to the pandemic, we believe the growth is also a result of the business development efforts, the customer service our bankers provide, and the resiliency of our customer base and geographic footprint. Switching to funding costs, interest-bearing deposits averaged 33 basis points in Q1, down 11 basis points on a linked quarter basis, and exited the quarter in March at 30 basis points. Total deposit costs were 24 basis points in Q1 and were down to 22 basis points in the month of March. We continue to work rates down as liquidity levels persist. In addition to certain negotiated demand account rates, we have $745 million in time deposits maturing over the remainder of the year at an average rate of just under 1%. Switching to loans, we saw total production of a little over $670 million in the first quarter, with $400 million coming from the community bank footprint. As Johnny mentioned, only slightly more than one-third of the origination volume in Q1 was funded at quarter end. Although loan balances declined, this, along with the robust origination volume in March, gives us optimism going forward. Payout volume was in line with Q4, at $844 million as we saw a number of borrowers monetize large assets or go to the permanent markets. As Brian Davis mentioned in his remarks, when normalizing for the impact from PPP lending, event income, and excess liquidity, the NIM would have shown a solid increase linked quarter. We're extremely pleased with how the NIM has held up over the past year. The word discipline has been mentioned a number of times today and over the past year. That discipline has put home in a great position to capitalize on the continued economic recovery and, as Johnny mentioned, the prospects of rising interest rates in the future. With that, I'll turn it back over to you, Donna.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, Stephen. A lot of good reports today. Johnny, before we go to Q&A, do you have any additional comments you'd like to make?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

It was a great quarter, as you know. Bones were down a little bit, but we'll get our fair share of that if Tracy and Kevin our group would go out and take that $2.5 billion as a percent. That's another $125 million pre-tax. So that's what I see in front of us. I see, and if we wrote it at four, which we could do, that's $100 million. So I think that is pretty exciting as this economy picks up with the company hitting on all eight in every area except for that and not doing too bad there in the middle of it. It's interesting, even though loan totals have gone down, your non-performing percentages, Kevin, have even gone down with it. So I remember back in 08 and 09 and 10, I kind of got a snapshot of our loans. You really got to look at the book of business because it was a solid book and didn't move too much up or down. And that's the same thing that's going on right now to see our non-performing numbers come down percentage-wise on a little bit more balance. That's impressive. Okay. Donna, I think I don't have anything else to say. I think we need to hear from Q&A, and I'll let you have it and go to... Okay, that sounds great.

speaker
Donna Townsville
Director of Investor Relations

Yes, thank you. I guess, Alisa, we are gonna turn to you now and go to Q&A.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the key. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question is from Michael Rose with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

speaker
Michael Rose

Hey, good morning, everyone. How are you?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

We're good, Michael. How are you doing? Good afternoon. Where are you?

speaker
Michael Rose

Yeah, good afternoon. Yes. Sorry. Maybe we could just start on credit quality. You know, good to see, you know, non-accruals come down. It seems like everything's moving in the right direction. Is there any reason to think that you guys would have a provision expense anytime soon? You know, understanding that, you know, you don't expect any losses from COVID and the charge off you had this quarter was the previous identified credit. It just seems like all the pieces are there. Your reserve level is really high that you guys wouldn't need a provision kind of anytime soon.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

Yeah, this is Kevin. I would say no. Yeah, I'd say the same, Tracy.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Yes, stay the same. All right, well, that was you. Back when we had what was really kind of tight, I asked Chris. I said, Chris, when COVID first hit and he had some snicks over there, he said, I said, well, how much money do we lose today if we sell that today? He said, we sell it today. I think, Chris, you can correct me if I'm wrong, Chris. I think you said $15 million. And I asked Chris that today before the call. And he said, ah, maybe a million. Am I saying that correct, Chris?

speaker
Chris Poulton
President of CCFG

Yes, sir. I think that's about right.

speaker
Michael Rose

Okay. And then just curious on the expenses. It looks like expenses were down. You know, sequentially, expense control has always been a hallmark of the company. Any sort of color there on a run rate perspective and, you know, any considerations for the year in terms of bonus accruals or incentive compensation that we should be thinking about? Thanks.

speaker
Brian Davis
Chief Financial Officer

I'll take that one, Mr. Allison. Okay. Like on the salary employee benefits, we accrue those salaries on a day-by-day basis. So we had 92 days in Q4 versus 91 days in Q1. So... So we had 90 days in Q1, so they're down a little bit there. We did have a little bit of incentive reversal from the end of the year, but it was primarily offset because we always have an increase in the FICA taxes that we have in Q1. We did have some PPE expense in Q4, you know, fogging buildings and doing that kind of stuff, and that was several hundred thousand dollars, so While it is down a little bit, most of it's really due to the number of days on our salary and employee benefit accrual. Plus, we didn't have really a whole lot of the PPE expenses. Our FDIC assessment was down just a little bit. That was mostly due to a true up on the accrual. So there's really not any noise other than the PPE from last quarter in the numbers.

speaker
Michael Rose

Okay. And then maybe finally for me, so there's a big increase in the share repurchase authorization? I guess given where your stock is and how much capital you have, I mean, how active would you expect to be as we move forward?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Thanks. I'm not going to ask Brian that question, but you asked me that question. We're active. We're going to continue to remain active, and I think our average price was $2,660 that we bought back about $330,000 shares the first quarter. Our team with the earnings has hit the home $2.00. So that's going to create a few more shares that will be in the float, which is a good thing, really is a good thing. But we will probably buy those shares back so we don't impact them, so we don't dilute our shareholders. So we're active, and we really, Michael, looked at stepping in and buying. We increased our authorization by 20 million shares, and we looked at stepping in there. We decided that probably it was time for us to look at doing some M&A, So we're buying a little bit, and we'll probably buy enough where we don't dilute our shareholders on the home $2 program.

speaker
Michael

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. You bet. Thank you.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

The next question is from John Armstrong with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

speaker
John Armstrong

Good afternoon, everyone. How are you, John? I'm good. I'm good. It's good to hear you, hear the report. Thank you. You guys touch a little bit more on the pipelines. It seems like it's better. It seems like it's materially better. But maybe, I don't know, Kevin or Tracy, if you want to touch on it. And then, Chris, can you expand a little bit more on the commitment numbers and why you think it's jumped so much? Thanks.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

Yes. Yes, Kevin. So, yes, pipeline looking right now compared to this time last quarter is definitely stronger than it was. We're seeing some good projects across the footprint, some construction projects that are, you know, back on the table. So I do think we've been talking, you know, for a couple of quarters that we think second half of the year is where it looked like things would get better, and I think we still feel that way. It may be that this quarter is even better than we expected, but it is stronger right now for sure. Chris?

speaker
Chris Poulton
President of CCFG

Yeah, this is Chris. Yeah, with regard to our pipeline, you know, I think what you're seeing, I think we saw in the first quarter and we're seeing now into the second quarter is the vast majority of probably what we're looking at closing now are deals that we worked on for the better part of last year. You know, we worked through the summer and the fall and such with a number of our borrowers on transactions that I think we talked during the second half of last year. Things have just taken longer to close. taking longer to get the equity together, et cetera. And part of that is really starting to get to a point where we felt like there was a recovery coming and that you could start to see some post-COVID trades, et cetera. So I think we're seeing that. Majority of what's in our pipeline to close for the second quarter are those types of deals that have been a long time coming. We have one closing tomorrow that we worked on all summer with the borrowers, just finally gotten to the point where they can They can get their deal together and close. So I think we're seeing in our pipeline what the economy is seeing, which is things starting to open up and therefore transactions starting to be completed. Most of our first quarter volume was facilities, which was nice to see. We like that part of our business. And seeing a couple facilities close where folks have got money together and they're looking to put that money out over the rest of the year. So I think we feel good about where we're at now. You know, last year was only $700 million. That was probably down 30% from what we normally do. So I think that was the anomaly.

speaker
John Armstrong

Go ahead, Johnny. Go ahead, John. I was just going to say, it seems like some of this is catch-up, and I guess, you know, we're lingering projects. Is the new, call it the new, new pipeline, the new activity, is that increasing as well, Chris?

speaker
Chris Poulton
President of CCFG

I believe so, yes. I mean, we're seeing, you know, now what starts to come in is, you know, new transactions, et cetera. But I think you're still – you know, the market overall was down last year, and a lot of projects that were on hold are starting to come through. So it's going to take – I think it'll take some time to get through that backlog.

speaker
John Armstrong

Good. Maybe one for you, Johnny, on inflation. Are your – Are the borrowers telling you the same thing that you're feeling, or is that not part of the narrative yet?

speaker
Tracy French
President and CEO of Centennial Bank

On inflation, you say, asking Johnny?

speaker
John Armstrong

Yep, exactly.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Oh, yeah. I mean, Kevin's son is a home builder. We kind of track a little bit of that. I mean, he just had a special order home for a customer. When he got through adding up what it cost, the guy said, I can't afford it. I can't do that. So, you know, I don't think there's any doubt about inflation being out there. And our bet is to sit tight on this $2.4 billion, as tight as we can sit on it. Tracy's about to rub all the hair off the front of his head because he can't stand it. But he knows it's a smart thing to do is to sit tight and remain disciplined. And that's what we're doing. And we'll have our opportunity to deploy this money at some point in time. And we have not done low rates. If we needed to do that, we could do it. We have not done that. We have not entered into those markets. So there really wasn't a lot of business after the pandemic. Chris is right. He said he worked on those projects all summer long. That's because of the uncertainty that was in the market. And we're seeing that. Now we're seeing it change. We're seeing that turnover where there's optimism and There's excitement about new projects. And, I mean, some of the projects, one of our good customers have brought us. We can't do them all. I mean, we could. We just don't go to that level of loan to one customer. But, yeah, he's a great customer, done well. You know, I just think we're off and running. I mean, I think inflation's got to hit us at some point in time. But, you know, think about it. The job this team did, over the last year by reducing the cost of funds by more than the loan yield and increasing profitability. It should be like a roller coaster on a track, and it ought to track exactly. It doesn't always do that. I know it's better for banks in raising rates environments, and I think we're going to get that. I think the Fed has done a hell of a job, and I think they're trying to do that, but I don't know what they're seeing that says inflation is only 1.5% or 1.75% because I see it everywhere I look all the time. Our customers are talking about it. It was a piece of, was it plywood or OBS or what it was the other day? It went from 7 to 21. It's just those guys in supply are going to get appliances is a problem. I think some of that might impact the economy a little bit. If they keep building houses and these rates stay low, they're going to keep selling them.

speaker
John Armstrong

And so the message is you're being patient, you're going to wait it out, and that's the way to kind of take advantage of some of your views on inflation is let other people make the mistakes and see what happens longer term.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

I think that's exactly, that's exactly, that's exactly. Now, it's coming a little faster. Our comment was it'll be the second half of the year, but Chris is coming pretty strong, and Kevin's people, his report looks much better than I mean, normally we look at a report like this, we're down $200 million or $300 million at this time. We're not now. So I'm not going to forecast loan growth because last time I did it, we went down. But it is much better. I can say that. It is much better, and it's good customers, and it's good equity in the deals. It's not a bunch of funny money stuff. It's the real deal like we underwrite. So there were some deals that went by us, but they were 80% and 85%. We're not going to do that. So we don't operate that way.

speaker
John Armstrong

All right, thanks for taking my questions. Hey, thanks, John.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

The next question is from Brady Gailey with KBW. Please go ahead.

speaker
Brady Gailey

Hey there, thank you. So I wanted to just hit on loan growth from a slightly different angle. I mean, if you listen to a lot of the other Florida banks, you know, everybody's talking about Florida really being on fire right now. They're seeing a lot of population growth. they've seen a lot of business relocations down there. I know you guys, I think Florida is now your biggest market, even bigger than Arkansas. But, you know, will Florida specifically play a big piece in the, you know, loan growth returning and just maybe any commentary about what you guys are seeing in that state?

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

Yeah, this is Kevin. I believe it will. I mean, obviously it is over half of, you know, of our footprint and, It has to play. It always has because there's obviously a lot more economic activity going on in Florida than there will be in Arkansas, and they really never shut down. And you are coming into, for most of the markets, the busy time of the year. So, yeah, I fully expect that it will play a large role in that.

speaker
Brady Gailey

All right, and then... just looking at when loan growth returns to home, you know, what should we expect? Like excluding any sort of noise with PPP forgiveness, but, you know, should we expect loan home to be, you know, growing in kind of the low single-digit range, or could it be higher than that as we come out of this?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Let's say low. Let's say low. I mean, let's say low with it. That way it'll make me, I'll be wrong to say low, but it looks pretty good right now. All right. You know, I think it's sustainable. I think this is sustainable. Tracy talks to our customers all the time.

speaker
Tracy French
President and CEO of Centennial Bank

We're certainly getting opportunities for better than we've had in the past year. I guess the question that comes to my mind when you ask that question, Brady, is really more the payoff type. as we are hearing some customers that are getting some good opportunities to cash in on what they've done over the past few years. So that's always the question for us is the payoff amounts that trickle in on primarily what we've seen on the larger payoffs we've seen lately is they have slowed their opportunity, and that's a good thing for them. And they'll be back, and they'll continue to come back if it's construction-type projects. It takes us a little time to put that on the books compared to if it's got a full balance and gets paid off today. But we actually feel pretty – I think you get the sentiment. It all feels pretty good in all our markets where we're at.

speaker
Brady Gailey

And then finally, I just wanted to ask about M&A. Johnny, I know you said earlier that you were active having some conversations with But I know you sometimes also give us a little additional color. I think the last time we connected, you were chasing two or three deals. But maybe just an update, a little more detailed update on M&A and if you feel like you're getting closer on anything.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Oh, I don't know the answer to that. You know, I've been disappointed in a couple of deals recently where we made made an offer that was the highest-priced offer that a bank had sold for in the U.S. in the past six or eight months. And the CEO commented that if he made that offer to his board, they'd laugh him out of the room. I didn't quite know what to say. I was somewhat speechless at that point in time. And I said, let's go to lunch. And we went to lunch, and Tracy and I left. But, you know, Tracy had one yesterday that – What they're trying to do, the bankers get in the way and screw stuff up most of the time because what they're doing is they know we don't dilute, and they know how we operate, so they back into a price. They take their customer and just back into a price, and everybody's going to make more money next year, and I start tracing. I tell them, hell, you need to sell it next year. You don't need to sell it this year. Anyway, we have a couple of really good – opportunities out there we feel like right now we actually have a total of three and uh we'll we're we're working on one as we speak and we'll see that'll resolve itself in the next two or three weeks and then we'll move to the next one in the next one and we've taken taken a couple off the table because they weren't realistic and the bankers were really I don't know if they bumped their head or what they did. But anyway, they were somewhat unrealistic. What did you say, Tracy? Yes, sir. Kind of just, wow. Tracy said, let me give you what they asked for that bike. And he brought it in and told it to me. And I started laughing. I said, that's a joke. He said, no, that's not a joke. I mean, they seriously meant that. And I said, well, I don't know. Maybe they bumped their head on the way to doing the run. Anyway, that's... You've got to be realistic. It's got to be a fair trade on both sides, and you've got to allow room for a stock to breathe. But I think we've got two or three deals out there that could cook off. So we'll just continue in the market, and we'll continue to be smart about the deals. And you know how disciplined we are, Brady. We're disciplined on everything. And, you know, As I told one seller, I said, you'll be proud. You think I'm too disciplined now. Once you become a home banks or a shareholder, you'll be really proud to be with a disciplined company because we protect this stock as much as we can. So anyway, it is interesting as Tracy and I have been out here working on some of these trades, but I think we got one we can get done and maybe another one.

speaker
Brady Gailey

Great. Thanks for the call, guys. You bet.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

The next question is from Matt Olney with Stevens. Please go ahead.

speaker
Matt Olney

Hey. Thanks, guys. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Sticking with the M&A discussion, we've seen some pretty sizable deals recently that are more MOE-like. We'd love to hear how HomeBank's thinking about M&A with respect to the size of deals. Are you becoming any more open to larger deals over $10 billion of assets, or do you think you're going to stick with the smaller deals that we've discussed in the past?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Well, we're primarily sticking with the smaller $2 or $3 billion deals to four at this point. We're not afraid to do a $10 billion deal if we understand their asset classes, Matt. One of the larger deals done recently, we just really didn't understand or have the expertise in some of those asset classes, primarily oil and gas. We don't know much about that except it's price of oil and gas has gone up. I know that. But we've just stayed pretty conservative there. Tracy, you got any comment on that?

speaker
Tracy French
President and CEO of Centennial Bank

No, sir. I mean, it's a combination. We've got some good-sized banks that would fit well with us and larger banks probably wouldn't. at that niche today.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Kevin talked about some of the asset classes on one of these larger deals a while back. He was right. We're not a big C&I lender. We're really a construction lender. We do a lot of construction. We like it. We've done well in that business. We'll continue doing that. If somebody's got a big book, 25% of the book's oil and gas, that's probably not a place we're going to be. We'll probably be at least somewhere else.

speaker
Matt Olney

Okay, got it. That's helpful. And then switching gears over to loan growth, I appreciate the commentary that the loan pipeline has seen a nice inflection kind of late in the quarter. What about on the other side? The payoffs still remain elevated during the 1Q. We'd love to hear more details around those payoffs. And anyway, I think about the payoffs with respect to customer deleveraging or just exiting lower quality credits, and was there any change in the pace of payoffs during the quarter? Thanks.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

Yeah, I think this, Kevin, I think Tracy, both Tracy and Chris mentioned that, and for the larger credits, the two biggest things that I saw this quarter were customers taking advantage of selling their projects, and refis after a project gets completed, multi-family, those sorts of things, and customer taking it permanent, taking it non-recourse, things like that. Those were the two biggest things. They're sprinkled in there a little bit of refi for rates, but those other two were the main things this quarter. Just looking at payoffs for the past several quarters, yeah, the last two look pretty much the same. at over $800 million, I would anticipate you're probably still going to see some of that because I think we've got more customers that I know of, a few that are selling that will materialize this quarter or next quarter. So I think you're still going to see some of that. We're going to have to outpace that to have loan growth.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Got it. You know, Matt, there's a shot at it now because things have turned, and even Florida, who never shut down, is those projects that are coming back on stream in Florida. So I'm optimistic that we're going to see some loan growth, maybe better this quarter than I anticipate. I really wasn't looking forward to it until the third and fourth quarter, but it may sneak up a little bit on us now. I don't get too optimistic because every time I do that, it goes the other way, so.

speaker
Matt Olney

Understood. Thank you.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

The next question is from Steven Scouten with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

speaker
Steven Scouten

Hey, good afternoon, everyone.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Thanks, Steven.

speaker
Steven Scouten

Maybe one question just for Brian first. Do you have the number on the remaining PPP, deferred PPP fees that could come through over the next few quarters?

speaker
Brian Davis
Chief Financial Officer

I do. As of 331, We had $20.9 million, and as of today, it's up about $1 million to $21.9 million.

speaker
Steven Scouten

Great. Thank you. And then maybe, I don't know if this would be Kevin or who, Tracy maybe, but with your lenders, do you feel like they have gotten distracted at all by PPP lending, or do you feel like you could actually see better core growth as PPP kind of winds down, or have they been able to kind of manage both effectively?

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

I would say, this is Kevin, I would say they've absolutely been distracted by both the funding and the forgiveness aspects of PPP, without a doubt. Funding has slowed down. I'm sorry. Funding has slowed down a lot, as I mentioned. We're not doing that many, and we're not really actively looking. We're responding to requests for funding, but we still have a lot of forgiveness to deal with. particularly round three. Got it.

speaker
Steven Scouten

Okay. Very helpful. Okay. And then maybe one for Stephen on the deposit cost side. How much lower do you think you could get deposit costs? Because you guys have made phenomenal progress, but it seems like maybe still some room to go with CD costs. You know, could we see deposit costs down, you know, in the 10, 15 basis point kind of range in a few quarters?

speaker
Stephen Tipton
Chief Operating Officer

Hey, Stephen. You know, I think the way we've looked at it here over the last six months at least is kind of where we were prior to the last tightening cycle. I think interest-bearing costs were down in the low 20s, which, you know, that was obviously a number of years into that low-rate environment. You know, interest-bearing costs today are down below 30, so that would continue to move down. We have some under contract that will come up over the course of this year. You mentioned the CD maturities that will continue to help. We'll find a floor somewhere, but given the liquidity that is in the system and in the bank today, I think we will continue to push on it as we go. Whether we can get down below 20, we'll see, but there's still opportunity over the next couple quarters for sure.

speaker
Steven Scouten

Got it. Perfect. Okay. And then, Johnny, maybe last one kind of for you would be jumping back to M&A. I know you mentioned maybe $2 billion to $3 billion kind of deals would be the sweet spot, but have you broadened the horizon at all in terms of geographies, or would it still largely be kind of Arkansas, Florida, or do you start looking at Georgia or Tennessee or any other states kind of in between, so to speak?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Well, I'll just tell you that we've always liked North and South Carolina. We thought that was a lot like Arkansas over the years, and we've always liked Texas. And there's maybe some opportunity, pretty pricey in Texas. But I think we're just looking for what comes our way right now. And a couple of them have come our way, and some of them are falling by the wayside. So, you know, it's just a misunderstanding. We quoted one guy, and he said, When our stock was 21, now it's 26 or 27. Had he taken our deal, he left about $50 million on the table. So some people don't understand what can happen to the market. And then bank stocks were starting to move up, and it would have been a great opportunity for them. And they're a good bank. It was a good bank. It was a nice bank, nice people. But as usual, the bankers kind of get in the way, or it appears to me that they do. It may not be correct.

speaker
Steven Scouten

Fair enough, fair enough. Well, we look forward to seeing the next one. We know it will be a good one, and congrats on a good quarter. Thanks, Steve. Thank you.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Don't count out – I think Brady counted out all our extra income. I think he took it all off. He doesn't need to take it all off, Brady, because we're still in those investments. I want you to understand that. I don't know that we'll have that kind of return coming the rest of the year, but we're still in all of those investments. Every one of them that we're in, we're still in. And we didn't get in them just to be there. We got in them to make money. And as you can see, we're making money with them. So we're investing a little bit ourselves.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

Next question is from Will Curtis with Pugby Group. Please go ahead.

speaker
Michael

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. What do you say, Will? How are you? I'm good. Good. I wanted to kind of piggyback on the Florida discussion and just in terms of how well the market's doing. I'm just curious, you know, as kind of this recovery moves along, is there anything that's of concern or you're watching a little closer these days, Johnny?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Well, from an asset quality perspective, I always keep an eye on our hotels, but the information coming in on our hotels is, much improved from where it was. So I've kind of pushed that off the side. I do worry about inflation. I think inflation's here, Will, and I worry about a devaluation of the dollar. I'm scared to death that's going to happen. I listened to a guy who I've done pretty good with on investing, and he says it's coming, and he says it's going to be quick and severe. So I'm He said, if you've got cash, get rid of it. That just concerns me, the buying power of the dollar goes down and inflation goes up, and we have to fight that battle. I said earlier, I think the Fed's done a good job, and I think they're trying to house the guy to do it. If anybody can do it, I think he can do it. But I just don't believe that – I don't believe – they're not looking where I'm looking. So the thing that bothers me the most is the inflationary side of it. But that could be good, too. A little inflation doesn't hurt us all, and a little – A little kick up in rates wouldn't hurt us. I mean, you think about it, you type your money, you type, we got $2 billion, we tied up at one and a quarter today or 130, 140 today, and the tenure goes to 3% by the end of the year and you look so stupid. You know, you'll think, why did I do that? So that's My deal is whether Tracy's going to have any hair left on the front of his head because he is rubbing his head every day I walk in. He said, I know we're doing the right thing, but damn, it's tough, John. He said, it's hard. It is really hard not to invest some of this money. We've talked about everything in the world. I mean, we bought some bank stocks that have done extremely well for us. They're paying a good dividend. Some good banks that we all know, know the people that run them and know how well they run their companies. And Those have done well for us. They're good dividend paying stocks, so we might as well sit with those for a little bit. Other than that, I don't know what, I don't have any, I think, I fear this, if they go to, we go to 31 or 2%, 30, what do you say, what did Brian say a while ago, Brian, what we go to on the tax break rate? What did you say, Brian?

speaker
Brian Davis
Chief Financial Officer

Oh, well, we were talking before the call, and you were asking me what the marginal rate might go to, and The marginal rate that we have right now is $26,135. And if we get the 28% tax bracket, it would go to 32.68% would be our marginal tax rate, which is an increase of 6.545.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Yeah, and think about it. You buy something today based on today's tax bracket, and then you turn around and get hit with this. So it's a dangerous, in some respects, it's a dangerous time to be in the M&A business trying to do a deal because They're all going to price it off of what today's tax rate is. And, you know, if it goes up 6%, they'd pull. I mean, we make $300 million a year, right? 310, something like that. Go seven points, that's what? $21, $22 million a year comes out of our shareholders' pocket. I think that delays a dividend probably for our shareholders. Instead of doing one every year, it might be three years or two years before we do another one. That bothers me a little bit. I know my wife's concerned about that because she likes, if you remember, she likes her dividend every month. She likes the amount we pay. She just wants the same amount every month is what she says. She said she's going to visit with Tracy and Brian Davis about that. But I think that would, you know, I guess the government would spend it wiser than we spend it. So that concerns me a little bit. Outside of that, I mean, the company, you run it. 292 pre-tax ROA and a 222 after that and a 36% efficiency ratio, and you make the kind of money we make and you've got some good investments kicking in for you, I could not be happier. I'm ready for a little loan growth, and I think we'll get it. But you know us. We are not going to push it, and we're not going to chase 2% and 3% loans. We're not going to do that. We're not in that business. We're not going to sell our future. I mean, we're looking at one bank right now. The problem is that nice banks, their yield sucks, you know. You've got to pay that price, right? If you're going to ride low rates, you can pay me now, pay me later, and that's my fear. Not my fear. We don't do that. But in the future, I hope rates come up a little bit. I think it's time for a little kick and race. I don't think that'll hurt things. It might slow mortgages down a little bit. I probably told you more than you wanted to hear, didn't I?

speaker
Michael

No, that was great. I appreciate your thoughts and a nice quarter. Thank you very much.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

The next question is from Brian Martin with Janie Montgomery. Please go ahead.

speaker
Brian Martin

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Hey, Brian. How are you? Good, Janie. I hope all is well there. Just a couple things for me, maybe one for Brian or for Kevin. Just on those PPP fees, Brian, I think you said they were $22 million. So the remaining, give the breakdown of what remains on one and two versus three, and then just maybe for Kevin, just the forgiveness that you talked about, just how to think about that forgiveness, particularly for round three. How are you thinking about that, or just how should we big picture? Any thoughts on that?

speaker
Brian Davis
Chief Financial Officer

I'll go first. of the approximately 22 million of PPP fees, we have 7 million of it left approximately from round one. And we started at 30 million at that point in time. And so that would leave about 15 million from round two.

speaker
Brian Martin

Okay. Okay. Perfect. Thanks, Brian.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

So, Brian, I think, you know, we're going to see the rounds one and two slow down. Those have been pretty consistent the last two quarters. or really the two quarters that we've been doing it. You're going to see that flow down, but you're going to see three pick up. So I would think that the next quarter or two should be pretty consistent with the last two quarters. And then past that, I'm not sure. I don't know how round three will finish up because some of that stuff, you know, we won't be able to to start on until later in the year. Some of it will get to start now, but some folks will wait as long as they can. So I do expect a couple of quarters similar to the last two. Okay. So not much bleeding over into next year, into 22. I hope not. I mean, I really hope not. I hope to get it done this year for my people's sake.

speaker
Brian Martin

Yeah, gotcha. Okay. And then maybe just one, I guess I'm not sure for who, but just on the liquidity, I guess I understand about sitting tight, but just think, I guess your comments about the loan growth funding late in the quarter, but then you have a full quarter impact of the liquidity from the deposit growth. Just kind of wondering how to think about the size of the balance sheet going forward and then maybe just kind of the margin impact, I guess, particularly as you get to the Q2 here with the full quarter of both those items.

speaker
Stephen Tipton
Chief Operating Officer

Brian, this is Stephen. To answer the last part first, we had, I think, on average for the quarter, about 40 basis points impact to the MIM from the liquidity that we had, and I think it was about 50 basis points in the month of March. So, you know, we try to, we really try to strip all that out and see, you know, where would we be on a core basis. I think we're still in that 4% range on a core basis that we've tracked in the past. You know, some of the stimulus, well, the last round of stimulus came early March. Yeah, that's still, well, see how some of that gets spent over this period of time. It certainly seems like people are saving money of interest. Our debit card spent in March was up 50% over what it was a year ago, and it was probably up 25% or 30% from what it had been the last four or five months in a row. So certainly some of that money is getting spent and put out in the economy. But maybe some of the liquidity is gets spent over the next few months and maybe some of that gets traded into loan balances for us. So, you know, earning asset size today to me is probably flattish to maybe down a little bit over the next several months. Thank you.

speaker
Brian Martin

Okay, perfect. And then, Stephen, just the deposit flows, you talked about them as strong as they were this quarter, I guess. Is your expectation those kind of slow down a bit at this point? Yeah, I mean, I do.

speaker
Stephen Tipton
Chief Operating Officer

I mean, we, you know, Q1 Historically, when you had tax refunds and those kind of things, it's good for us. And then you had PPP funding and you had the latest round of stimulus that all helped that. So I wouldn't necessarily expect the deposit increases that we had this past quarter to continue at that level going from here. We'll continue to watch where interest-bearing balance is. and what we're paying there and try to mitigate some of the inflows there just from an interest rate standpoint.

speaker
Brian Martin

That's it. Okay. All right. That's all for me. I had it. Thanks, guys.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

The next question is from John Helps with FOIA. Please go ahead.

speaker
John Helps

Hey, guys. Nice quarter. Thank you. How are you? I'm good. Living the dream, working on my bedroom. I dialed in a little late. Maybe you discussed, but in the construction, like your crystal ball, what subsectors do you see potential growth or demand, like industrial or medical office? Maybe it's a bad question. Maybe you only focus on one or two areas, so I apologize, but If there's a few areas, are you seeing any green shoots or whatever you want to call it in terms of construction demand? Thanks.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

Yeah, I think you could, several areas, I think, at least in the footprint, and Chris can talk for his group because it may be different for his group. But in the footprint, certainly, you know, multifamily in part of the footprint, industrial areas, In that central Florida area, there's a lot of that to be had, although that's generally pretty cheap. There will actually be probably a little bit of hotel that comes around. It's going to be dependent upon which market we're talking about. We'll determine which asset classes there are. Chris, do you see something different than that?

speaker
Chris Poulton
President of CCFG

No, I think that's right. Industrial is hot everywhere. uh, maybe a little too hot. Um, and so we're, we're a little cautious to be honest with you on industrial. Um, but, uh, anything residential is doing well. Uh, a little bit of mixed use is okay depending on the market. Um, but yeah, I think it's, I think it's the stuff you'd expect for the most part. Uh, you know, on industrial, it just depends a little bit of what you're taking a look at. Cold storage is really, really in demand. Um, but, uh, as a subset of that. But, you know, again, it's, you know, everything from single-family homes to condos to rentals all pretty good in most markets.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

Okay. John, yeah, Chris mentioned single-family, and certainly I didn't mention that in my comments, but it definitely, the single-family construction side is strong in really all of our markets.

speaker
John Helps

Okay. And then X that This is maybe too theoretical. Like the loan to cost, the cost has got to be coming higher. So that gives you more comfort. Maybe do you underwrite to higher rents as a result or higher, you know, loan to value? Or do you, you know, I guess what I'm saying is loan to cost, loan to value are maybe getting separated a little bit. So that would seem to me like put upward pressure on rent. Are you underwriting that? And it's not a trick question. It may be theoretical. I just was curious.

speaker
Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer

We're definitely seeing the relationship between cost and value changing in our appraisals. We are seeing that as costs are going up. It's not normal for us to really try to underwrite to higher rents in the market. That's not something we typically will do. Although a lot of our projects do project that, we're sensitive about that and really try to, you know, while we may give them credit for it on one side, we're also conservative and look at what happens if they don't get that premium. So that's not something that we typically would hang our underwriting on.

speaker
John Helps

That makes sense. Good answer. So it's a little cushion maybe for the underwriting in the future as well. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, John.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Allison for any closing remarks.

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Thank you all for joining today. Thanks for your support. Hopefully next quarter we'll have another good one. We're off to a good year and things are picking up countrywide and I think rates are going to pick up a little bit and I think that's good for banks. So I'm pretty optimistic that this could be another really good year for home and we certainly are out to a great start We've never made $90 million in a month. And I don't know if we've ever run a 36-60 efficiency ratio, have we? Somewhere we've gotten down close.

speaker
spk09

Very close. Very close?

speaker
John Allison
Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Okay. Anyway, I don't want to say something's wrong. Anyway, thank you. Thank you very much for your support. And we'll talk to you in about 90 days.

speaker
Elisa
Conference Operator

conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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