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

Anthony Chalfant: Yes. Yes, sure, David. Generally, credit has been pretty benign now for quite a few quarters, as you mentioned. And I think we’re still in a little bit of a credit bubble. And our numbers were a bit impacted by the recovery on the large deal this quarter. But it still even – if you netted that out, it would be lower than – much lower than historical for NCOs. And again, nonaccruals remains very low. So, I think we’re still in that, what I would call a very slow move back to a more normal credit environment. It’s just been slower than I expected over the last several quarters. So nothing really from a jumping out as to the small – the little increase in the classified numbers. It’s just more just movement of credits between grades, and there was nothing really that jumped out.

So, we’re continuing to watch everything closely. But again, our total criticized numbers have stayed pretty stable, now for quite some time. And while there might be a little bit more pressure as we go forward, we’ve got quite a bit of room still to move, to get back to what I would call a more normal credit environment. I will say there’s probably a little bit more weakness in the C&I space right now just. And I don’t know really what to attribute that to, but I think it’s just maybe the stimulus money that’s worked its way through the economy and isn’t really there to kind of prop some of those operating companies up. So, we’re seeing a little bit more stress there, but nothing of any significance that’s very alarming.

David Feaster: Got it. And then maybe just touching on kind of the implications. It seems like we’re going to on a higher for longer environment, at least that’s kind of more of the consensus, it seems like. Maybe just on the margin and the NII trajectory, I guess, as we look out to next year, I guess, if rates do stay higher and funding pressures persist, talk about some margin compression. But I guess would you expect that in the upcoming quarter? I mean, I guess, would you expect that to persist kind of in the first half of the year? And I guess, just kind of how you think about the margin trajectory and kind of opportunities for expansion over time in a higher for longer environment?

Donald Hinson: Yes. Sure. Yes, I think that we’re going to continue to have some pressure as again, you mentioned how September was lower than NIM than for the quarter. Again, I think the pressure on deposits is really the factor. Again, our – the costs there are – will continue to go up. How quickly is — it seems like we go in kind of waves where we get a lot of exception requests and in other times, there’s less so. But with the rates higher and especially if the Fed increases another time where there’s a lot out there on the short end of the curve, that could cause more problems and hurt us at least in the short run. For rates higher longer, at some point, the increases on the deposit side will subside and our assets will reprice and we’ll hit an equilibrium. But at this point, we’re probably looking maybe the middle of next year. Maybe it might happen Q2, but might not happen till Q3 at this point.

David Feaster: Got it. That’s helpful color. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. We now have Andrew Terrell of Stephens.

Andrew Terrell: Hi, good morning.

Jeffrey Deuel: Good morning.

Andrew Terrell: I wanted to go back to the securities repositioning transaction. I appreciate all the color you guys provided there. As you’re contemplating similar transactions moving forward, I know the one that took place this quarter was, I think you mentioned a 1.4-year earn back. Is that the kind of threshold you’re looking to manage any incremental repositioning trades around, or would you be willing to extend to, call it, two, three years? Just want to get your thoughts there?