Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Rulis: Okay. It doesn’t sound like you’re uncomfortable on the high side to really deploy that. But – okay. Appreciate it?

Donald Hinson: Regulatory capital start exceeding 10% and we might certainly be like our leverage ratio, we probably want to keep that under 10% in the current economic environment just, because I think you start getting over 10% and then we may not get the value of that. But right now, I think we’re in the high 9s. So, I think we’re fine.

Jeff Rulis: Okay. Thanks Don. And then maybe, Tony, just on the – I know this is a squishy question in terms of reserve to loans and any guideline there. But that continues to lift as a percent of loans and you’ve been in a net recovery position for over two years now. I know those are specific credits, but just the thought of – if you’re looking at low single-digit loan growth in the short run, your thoughts on the reserve. Do we kind of hold steady or continue to lift up as we’ve seen it?

Anthony Chalfant: Yes. Don, I don’t know if you want to take that with the – on the ACL?

Donald Hinson: I think this holds steady. We don’t have any plans to really change that. It’s been pretty consistent. We’ve already considered all of – looking forward potential recessions is in the model. So again, we’re – our underwriting is such that as you can see, we tend to always kind of outperform what we’re putting on our criticized loan portfolio and with the actual amount of charge-offs. So, one of thing pops off the change, is the mix of loans and the amount of loans.

Jeff Rulis: And then the – yes. Yes. I know that it’s not black and white necessarily, but just trying to get a gut feel of where that is. It sounds like you’re pretty comfortable with the level and – got you. One housekeeping, Don, while I have you – was there an interest recovery that added to margin in the quarter the 347, was there a bump there at all, that it flows through there?

Donald Hinson: I don’t believe so. I don’t think we had anything that ballooned the loan yields at all, if that’s what you’re talking about.

Jeff Rulis: Yes. From the credit side?

Donald Hinson: I don’t think we had any large – income recoveries on that.

Jeff Rulis: Okay. And Don, did you mention about that expense growth rate in ’24 expectations? I know that you kind of walked through the near term around 41.5% or a little higher in the short-term, it did take exiting contracts or something. But is that – I kind of – if I look at the balance of ’24, is it right to say that’s still going to be pretty managed growth, if at all, going to keep that growth rate pretty low?

Donald Hinson: Yes. Obviously, in this rate environment, we’re looking at all aspects to protect overall profitability. So I mentioned and maybe 41.5%, I have to be a little more specific, maybe into more say, mid-41s, right, for next quarter. But again, we are – I would say some things are lower right now, because of because profitability is down this quarter, compared to what was expected. So like, again, incentive comp accruals are down. If they go back to normalized levels, I would expect more of a $42 million run rate, that’s kind of ex any tactics that we are in the process of looking at, but I would say the run rate was probably popped at $42 million a quarter starting in Q1, if we don’t do anything else regarding that.

Jeff Rulis: Okay. Thank you.

Jeffrey Deuel: Thanks, Jeff.

Operator: Thank you. We now have David Feaster of Raymond James.

David Feaster: Hi, good morning everybody.

Jeffrey Deuel: Good morning.