Earnings Sentiment

Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.

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Sentiment Distribution

   

Earnings Call Transcript Word Cloud

     

Bullish Statements during Earnings call

Statement
We’re capitalizing on opportunities and I’m proud of all our bankers as they accomplish all of this across all our communities
Some positives for the quarter included higher yields on loans and balances at the Fed combined with higher loan volumes
This solid performance can be attributed to the execution of our sustainable organic growth strategy and the commitment to our culture that develops deep customer relationships and provides world-class customer service
So we are hiring, but it’s a part of our strategy that we’ve put in place already, we’re having good success there
This is a long-term product, a long-term relationship, so we feel really good about it
As I mentioned, we’re laser focused on our efforts to achieve organic growth and I’m very pleased with our results
We think these are great opportunities
So, I think we’re really pretty competitive and feel good about where we’re at
The reason I labored through that detail is to show you that the kind of business we’ve been successful generating in our expansion is core, stable, grassroots business, which I believe will generate tremendous value over an extended period of time
I’m very pleased with the results of these efforts, and I believe that this strategy is both scalable and durable, and I’m convinced we’ll be doing this for a long time
Looking at our consumer banking business, we continue to see outstanding organic growth
We added 6,220 net new-checking households in the quarter, bringing the year-to-date totaled to 22,800, a 12% improvement on 2022 year-to-date results
I feel really good about the customers, not every one of them has performed like we want, but most of them have
And we’re just seeing a lot of good opportunity
As in the past, our balance sheet and our liquidity levels remain strong
As Phil mentioned, we’ve been very pleased with the volumes we’ve been able to achieve
And we are getting good applicant flow and put it that way
Our new opportunities for the quarter were strong, but they were down 17% from the second quarter
But I feel really good about how we’ve done things
In fact, I think it shows we were doing our business pretty well
Regarding commercial real estate, our overall portfolio remains stable, with steady operating performance across all types and acceptable debt service coverage ratios and loan-to-values
Our investor CRE portfolio has held up well with the average performance metrics remaining essentially unchanged quarter-over-quarter and exhibiting an overall loan-to-value of about 54% loan-to-cost of about 60% and acceptable reported debt service coverage ratios
We believe these are industry-leading numbers and represent tangible evidence that the customer experience we offer and the reputation we’ve built set us up to be successfully competitive
During the quarter, we did not make any material investment purchases and sold about $361 million in municipal securities at a small net gain as we took advantage of market dislocations, which allowed us to improve interest income going forward
These factors are evidence that the growth is sustainable and beneficial
So, I don’t know that I can confidently say that we’re at the bottom, but I certainly feel a whole lot better today than I did a quarter ago
This means we grew our core customer base by 23% in just 3 years
When I hear that, it makes me feel really good about just how core and how stable it is, because that’s really our wheelhouse
When you have a balance sheet like ours, it puts you in a good place to take advantage of opportunities
They’ve been doing a good job
       

Bearish Statements during earnings call

Statement
It’s just most people, when you talk about their business and there are some problems here and there
Higher interest rates continue to be a challenge for our CRE borrowers and have impacted performance of some project as compared to original performance
The fourth quarter for us, I think, is going to be a little bit weaker, I don’t think it’s – and it’s not significant
I don’t get the sense we’ve had a tremendous problem here in the state
However, that was because our second quarter new opportunities were at all-time high after the dislocations brought on by the SVB situation
But, I think there’s more worry about than there are actual problems today
So there are some issues, but it’s not bad
Now, moving to our net interest margin, our net interest margin percentage for the third quarter was 3.4% down only 1 basis point from the 3.45% reported last quarter
I mean, if you’ve got an office building that’s refi-ing [ph] now and you don’t have the capacity or the willingness to right size it, there could be some issues there
They were down from $9.8 million in the second quarter
Trust and investment management fees were down $1.8 million or 4.5% compared to the second quarter, driven by a decreases in estate fees of $1.1 million, real estate fees of $673,000, and tax fees of $413,000, partly offset by an increase in investment fees of $750,000
Look, Cullen/Frost got some loan growth, they must be just taking other people’s problems
So there’s a little bit uncertainty there
Our tax exempt municipal portfolio averaged about $7 billion during the third quarter, down $505 million from the second quarter and had a taxable equivalent yield of 4.26%, down 1 basis point from the prior quarter
Annualized net charge-offs for the third quarter represented 11 basis points of average loans and year-to-date annualized net charge-offs are 18 basis points of average loans, which is below historic averages
But if you didn’t bid the right way and cost went up, you got a fixed rate deal, fixed cost deal, that could be some issues
We’d like we’re going to get canceled or something, because there’s – I guess if you watch too much TV, you think it’s supposed to be bad
And so that’s probably some issues
One thing we’ve seen more competitive pressure today in the last couple of recent weeks, it’s been more on the CD side
I know you noted the expense growth rate would likely come down next year
   

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