Origin Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Origin Bancorp first quarter 2021 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 a touch tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Chris Riegelman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. We issued our earnings press release yesterday afternoon, a copy of which is available on our website, along with a slide presentation that we will refer to during this presentation. Please refer to slide two of our slide presentation, which includes our safe harbor statements regarding forward-looking statements and the use of non-GAAP financial measures. For those joining by phone, please note the slide presentation is available on our website at www. Please also note that our safe harbor statements are available on page six of our earnings release filed with the SEC yesterday. All comments made during today's call are subject to the safe harbor statements in our slide presentation and earnings release. I'm joined this morning by Origin Bank Corp's Chairman, President, and CEO, Drake Mills, our Chief Financial Officer, Steve Brawley, President and CEO of Origin Bank, Lance Hall, our Chief Risk Officer, Jim Crotwell, and our Chief and Banking Officer, Preston Moore. After the presentation, we will be happy to address any questions you may have. Now, I'll turn the call over to you, Drake.

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. To start, I am very pleased with the results of the first quarter of this year, and I'm equally pleased with the process that our teams are going through to elevate the performance of our company. You know, as vaccines are more available throughout our markets and economic activity continues to improve, I am encouraged and optimistic about how Origin is positioned as we move forward in 2021. Looking at the results for the quarter, net income was $25.5 million, up $8 million from the prior quarter. Free tax pre-provision earnings were a record high for origin at $32.9 million for the quarter, compared to $28.3 million for the prior quarter. Net interest income was $3.4 million higher this quarter for a total of $55.2 million, another historic quarterly high. Provision expense came in at $1.4 million, which is the lowest level we've recorded in a quarter since the pandemic began early last year. Diluted EPS for the first quarter was $1.08, up 44% from the prior quarter. Our total assets ended at $7.57 billion, and total loans held for investments were $5.85 billion at March 31st, up $125 million from the previous quarter. I'm not going to continue to go through the strong performance metrics for the quarter, but I'll let Lance, Jim, and Steve provide more detail as they go through our slide presentation. The success we've enjoyed in Q1 is a direct result of the hard work and effort put in by our teams over the past year. As I often say on these calls, we are guided by our strategic plan, which I view as an intentional and methodical process to position us for success. In the past, we have talked about investments we've made in infrastructure and teams throughout our footprint, and our focus and commitment to those investments are paying off in a big way. On slide six, you can see the results of some of the investments we've made with the sets we've had in Houston and DFW. We still see tremendous opportunities for growth in Texas based on our current infrastructure and quality teams of bankers, as well as opportunities that exist based on disruptions in the market that we anticipate capitalizing in. We were highly successful in the first quarter, and I'm looking forward to what our teams will accomplish in 2021. Now, I'll turn it over to Lance.