SB Financial Group, Inc. 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Please go ahead, Sarah. Good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to remind you that this conference call is being broadcast live over the internet and will be archived and available on our website at ir.yourstatebank.com. Joining me today are Mark Klein, Chairman, President, and CEO; Tony Cosentino, Chief Financial Officer; and Steve Walz, Chief Lending Officer. Today's presentation may contain forward-looking information. Cautionary statements about this information, as well as reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures, are included in today's earnings release materials, as well as our SEC filings. These materials are available on our website, and we encourage participants to refer to them for a complete discussion of risk factors and forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date made, and SB Financial undertakes no obligation to update them. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Klein.

Thank you, Sarah, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter 2026 conference call and webcast. This quarter represented another period of disciplined execution and sustained momentum across our franchise. As we navigate the current interest rate environment, our diversified operating revenue model continued to deliver the structural resilience required to gather scale, expand our top-line revenue, and protect core profitability. We experienced balanced performance across our commercial lending operations and fee-based business lines, anchored by proactive margin management and sound credit administration. While planned investments in core systems and commercial services temporarily increased expenses this quarter, our strong fee generation and measured margin expansion provided a constructive offset. We are pleased with our quarterly performance, always with a keen eye on prudent capital management and deployment, organic scale, and long-term shareholder value creation.

Highlights for this quarter include net income at $3.9 million with diluted earnings per share of $0.63 compared to $4 million or $0.64 per diluted share last quarter, marking now our 63rd consecutive quarter of profitability. Total operating revenue reached $18.1 million, an increase of 9% from $16.6 million for the year-ago quarter, driven by net interest income that advanced 8.8% to $13.4 million. Loan balances reached $1.22 billion, reflecting an increase of $108 million or 9.8% from the prior year quarter, and an increase of $29 million or 2.5% from the linked quarter. This performance extends our trend of sequential loan growth now to 10 consecutive quarters. Total deposits finished at $1.38 billion, up $120 million or 9.5% year-over-year. Our core relationship model continues to provide positive momentum.

However, total balances contracted modestly by $8.3 million from the linked quarter due to the anticipated runoff of a rather large wholesale relationship that Tony discussed on our call last quarter. Non-interest income finished at $4.7 million, up 9.6% year-over-year, and accounted for nearly 26% of our total operating revenue, demonstrating the ongoing value of our diversified fee-based business lines. Tangible book value per share ended the quarter at $18.65, up $1.44, or 8.3% year-over-year, with our adjusted tangible book value per share, when excluding AOCI, expanding now to $23.03. Asset quality remains a key benchmark in our quarterly performance. As such, total non-performing assets finished at $4.3 million, representing just 0.27% of total assets and down five basis points from the linked quarter. We continue our journey to deliver on our five key strategic initiatives we discussed in many prior quarters.

Revenue growth and diversity for improved performance, greater scale for efficiency improvement, expanded scope for additional services in each household, operational excellence for a stronger brand, and always top-tier asset quality. Taking a little closer look at our revenue diversity, our first initiative focuses on revenue diversity that serves as our structural defense across all economic cycles. Our fee-based teams, driven primarily by our 25 mortgage loan originators, executed with precision throughout the quarter. However, with mortgage interest rates at or above the 7% mark for much of the quarter, industry-wide refinance activity has certainly been limited. Given this headwind, we were pleased to deliver mortgage originations for the quarter of nearly $78 million, noting an improvement of nearly 15% over the prior year period. Entering the fourth quarter, our residential pipeline remains consistent at $20 million-$25 million level.

Complementing our constrained origination momentum was our steady annual income from our sold residential servicing portfolio that reached now $1.52 billion this quarter, delivering nearly $1 million in servicing fees with $2.8 million earned year to date. When combined with our proactive servicing rights hedge, they provide a vital buffer to earnings momentum. Beyond mortgage banking, Peak Title delivered $514,000 in revenue, supported by internal commercial lending referrals, and our wealth management team delivered solid top-line support that helped offset mounting margin pressure. Our second key initiative is greater scale to improve efficiency. A broader market presence identifies opportunities to scale up. In the interim, core deposit retention and expansion remain a priority as the industry broadly deals with funding pressures and mounting competition.

Our teams delivered exceptional execution this quarter, highlighted by our non-interest-bearing checking accounts that expanded by $11.5 million from the linked quarter to reach $270 million, representing nearly 20% of our total deposit base. All of this core deposit activity has provided a very stable deposit cost of funds coming in for the quarter at 1.81%, up just two basis points from the prior year. This level of high-quality core deposit growth reflects our strong community bank brand and proactive approach to client care. Ongoing consolidation and market disruption across our footprint continue to create significant organic and market balance sheet growth opportunities. Our commercial lending and treasury management teams have been on the street and engaging with clients and prospects that seek a more responsive relationship-based banking partner amid all the disruption.

Campaign to date, we have obtained approximately 586 new relationships, including balances at nearly 30% of our longer-term goal of securing organic growth of $500 million in new loans, deposits, mortgages, and wealth assets. Furthermore, our targeted de novo office expansions are demonstrating constructive, measured progress. Both our Angola, Indiana, and Napoleon, Ohio, offices continue to exceed expectations and have combined to deliver now over $25 million in local, lower-cost core deposits and $21 million in market-yielding loan balances. Our third initiative centers on deepening existing client relationships for greater scope. Of course, by scope, we mean capturing a larger share of the client's wallet through the identification of comprehensive multi-product solutions. In fact, our hybrid office strategy is specifically designed to facilitate this approach, driving cross-functional internal referrals between our commercial and retail lending teams, mortgage originators, and wealth management advisors.

Within this framework, our wealth management division continues to provide a robust array of advisory services, with total wealth and brokers assets under management finishing the quarter at $578 million. Our alliance with AdvisoryAlpha we discussed in prior quarters is progressing exactly as planned, allowing for a methodical transition of client portfolios to an enhanced platform and one that provides our clients with direct access to institutional-grade investment solutions. Finally, as we continue to seek a higher level of engagement with our client base to provide a greater level of services per household. This strategy includes more robust data analytics that enables our sales staff to work smarter and more intentionally with their client base and their unique book of loans and deposits. Measuring growth initiatives per producer is a continuous function at their fingertips and provides immediate feedback on productivity and their level of goal attainment.

Our level of engagement has enabled us to expand our number of households now to over 33,000, inclusive of our wealth relationships, credit card portfolio, and our 9,000 household sold mortgage portfolio. Fourth initiative is excellence in operational activity. Achieving scale requires not just top-line growth, but disciplined alignment with our operational activity. The robust $29 million linked quarter loan expansion we achieved this quarter was driven by commercial lending production capacity we have intentionally built over the past several years across Greater Columbus, Northern Ohio, and Eastern Indiana markets. Entering the fourth quarter, our production capacity is apparent as we now have an active commercial pipeline of over $53 million. When we include our commercial construction pipeline, we will have another $15 million-$25 million of growth net of projects that we funded in prior years that we'll be seeking long-term permanent agency financing.

Our operating expenses were slightly elevated this quarter at $13 million, reflecting deliberate investments to support our expanding operational footprint. They are tied to three operational drivers; adding talented commercial and TM leadership in growth markets, seasonal performance incentive accruals aligned with our loan portfolio expansion, and front-loaded implementation and consulting expenditures required to support our credit card and core platform outsourcing conversions. These technology expenditures are clearly project-driven, non-reoccurring, and lay the groundwork for greater operating efficiency as we continue to scale up. Despite these elevated transition costs, our underlying financial foundation remains exceptionally solid. Balance sheet capital strength is robust, providing the necessary support for our growth initiatives. Total shareholders' equity ended the quarter at over $144 million, representing a 5.4% increase from the $137 million reported a year ago. When we exclude the temporary AOCI adjustment, capital is up $11.1 million or 6.9%. Finally, asset quality. Our fifth and final strategic initiative is maintaining top-tier asset quality.

Our non-performing assets remain near historic lows at just 27 basis points of total assets. Our disciplined credit oversight is further reflected in the level of our core criticized and classified loan portfolios. Criticized loans dropped sharply year-over-year to $331,000, while our classified loans year-over-year declined by over 24% to just $3.6 million. We also continue to see measured progress in our specialized lending sectors. Our agricultural lending portfolio reached nearly $184 million at quarter end, expanding 28% year-over-year. While slightly below our original 12-month timeline identified last year, we remain firmly committed to growing this key sector and expect to cross our $100 million portfolio goal within the next several quarters. Likewise, SBA lending production has escalated to now this year, $5.2 million or a 24% increase over the prior year.