Things have never been stronger in the 145 year history of Horizon Bancorp which operates Horizon Bank branches throughout Michigan’s Great Southwest and northern Indiana.
Horizon’s Chairman and CEO is Craig Dwight. He reported Wednesday, “We are pleased to announce record 2018 first quarter earnings of $0.50 diluted earnings per share. Horizon’s net income of $12.8 million was an increase of $4.6 million, or 55.7-percent, when compared to the prior year. Diluted earnings per share increased $0.13 per share, or 35.1-percent, to $0.50, for the first quarter of 2018 when compared to the prior year.”
With numbers like those, Dwight says that Horizon’s tangible book value per share increased to $12.86 compared to $12.72 and $11.79 at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2017, respectively, essentially representing the highest tangible book value per share in the company’s 145-year history.
Horizon Bancorp announced its unaudited financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2018. Here are some key takeaways from those results:
- Net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 was $12.8 million, or $0.50 diluted earnings per share, compared to $8.2 million, or $0.37 diluted earnings per share, for the quarter ended March 31, 2017. This represents the highest quarterly net income and diluted earnings per share in the company’s 145-year history.
- Return on average assets was 1.32-percent for the first quarter of 2018 compared to 1.07-percent for the first quarter of 2017.
- Return on average equity was 11.29-percent for the first quarter of 2018 compared to 9.66-percent for the first quarter of 2017.
- Total loans increased by an annualized rate of 3.4-percent, or $23.7 million, during the first quarter of 2018.
- Consumer loans increased by an annualized rate of 17.6-percent, or $20.0 million, during the first quarter of 2018.
- Residential mortgage loans increased by an annualized rate of 7.6-percent, or $11.4 million, during the first quarter of 2018.
- Net interest income increased $7.8 million, or 30.7-percent, to $33.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to $25.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017.
- Net interest margin was 3.81-percent for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to 3.80-percent for the three months ended March 31, 2017.
CEO Dwight says “Our organic loan growth was somewhat tempered during the first quarter of 2018 due to approximately $64.7 million of commercial loan payoffs, the majority of which were expected or requested by Horizon Bank. The Bank originated approximately $116.0 million in commercial loans during the first quarter of 2018; however, only $41.2 million of these loan originations had been funded as of March 31, 2018. Horizon’s growth markets of Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis and Kalamazoo, grew loans by $14.8 million, for an annualized rate of 11.8-percent, during the first quarter of 2018.”
Dwight concluded, “As expected, Horizon started to fully realize the cost savings from our 2017 acquisitions of Lafayette Community Bancorp and Wolverine Bancorp, Inc. during the first quarter of 2018. Increases in net interest income and non-interest income of $7.6 million and $759,000, respectively, more than offset an increase in non-interest expense of $4.3 million when compared to the prior year helping to improve our efficiency ratio to 61.92-percent for the first quarter of 2018 compared to 64.97-percent for the same period in the prior year. Given that the first quarter is typically Horizon’s seasonally slow period, we expect continued growth and further improvement in our efficiency during the year.”
