Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript April 19, 2024

Hilltop Holdings Inc.  isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good day everyone and welcome to today’s Hilltop Holdings First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please note this call is being recorded. I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Erik Yohe, Executive Vice President.

Erik Yohe: Thank you. Before we get started, please note that certain statements during today’s presentation that are not statements of historical fact, including statements concerning such items as our outlook, business strategy, future plans, financial condition, credit risk and trends in credit, allowance for credit losses, liquidity and sources of funding, funding cost, the impact, and the potential impacts of inflation, stock repurchases, dividends, and impacts of interest rate changes, as well as such other items referenced in the preface of our presentation are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s current expectations concerning future events that, by their nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Our actual results, capital, liquidity, and financial condition may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of factors, including the precautionary statements referenced in the preface of our presentation and those included in our most recent annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. Please note that the information presented is preliminary and based upon data available at this time. Except to the extent required by law, we expressly disclaim any obligation to update earlier statements as a result of new information. Additionally, this presentation includes certain non-GAAP measures, including tangible common equity and tangible book value per share. A reconciliation of these measures to the nearest GAAP measure may be found in the appendix to this presentation, which is posted on our website at ir.hilltop.com.

With that, I will turn the presentation over to Hilltop President and CEO, Jeremy Ford.

Jeremy Ford: Thank you, Erik and good morning. For the first quarter, Hilltop reported net income of approximately $28 million or $0.42 per diluted share. Return on average assets for the period was 0.7% and return on average equity was 5.2%. While the impact of economic headwinds that began in 2022 continue to persist, we are pleased with strong returns from PlainsCapital Bank and Hilltop Securities that allowed us to improve earnings per share over the same period in the prior year. Despite a housing market that remains under pressure, prime lending significantly reduced its pre-tax loss from the same period in the prior year through meaningful, but hard expense-based right sizing. Improvement and our consolidated results are a true reflection of ongoing hard work by our teams across Hilltop.

We believe that our long-term decision-making, strategic initiatives, and cost management efforts positions us to consistently serve clients across our businesses, generate consolidated profitability, return capital to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends, and take advantage of opportunities when they arise. During the quarter, PlainsCapital Bank generated $50 million of pre-tax income on $13.1 billion of assets, representing a return on average assets of 1.2%. While our conservative approach to credit has limited outside growth in our loan portfolio, it has also allowed us to prudently optimize the bank’s liquidity and funding. Average loans at the bank declined slightly from the fourth quarter, driven primarily by a reduction in National Warehouse Lending and balances as normal seasonality and a depressed mortgage market continues to restrict this business.

We continue to see a pullback in the commercial lending market, due to the higher for longer interest rate environment and increased equity requirements, and we expect this pullback to pressure loan growth for the near future. Our average deposit balance declined 3% during the period, primarily due to the bank returning nearly $380 million of suite deposits back to Hilltop Securities and returning $42 million of brokered CDs. Encouragingly, this plan reduction was partially offset by a $200 million increase in interest-bearing deposits. Results in the quarter include a provision recapture of $2.9 million, which resulted from the impact of net charge-offs improvements in the economic outlook and changes in migrations across the portfolio. Overall, asset quality continues to be stable as criticized loans as a percentage of bank loans, has remained relatively flat for the third consecutive period.

Moving to PrimeLending, where the company reported a pre-tax loss of $16.5 million for the period, as low housing inventory, escalating home prices and higher mortgage rates persist. Operating results were negatively impacted by a $7 million valuation adjustment on the MSR asset. We are seeing that the cost cutting measures implemented during 2022 and 2023 are making a positive impact, as non-variable compensation has decreased by $6 million or 17% since the first quarter of 2023. This has resulted in the pre-tax loss improving despite lower overall revenues relative to the prior year period. Notwithstanding these ongoing challenges, employee engagement and morale remain remarkably high, underscored by the company’s recent recognition as one of the top 10 workplaces in the 2024 USA Today ranking.

Looking forward, while we believe the next few quarters will remain challenged. We are beginning to see signs for optimism within the mortgage business. In the first quarter, Hilltop Securities generated pre-tax income of $19 million on net revenues of $170 million dollars, marking a 12% increase in revenue over same period in the prior year. This growth was primarily driven by the mortgage trading business and suite deposit products within Wealth Management. Speaking to the lines of business at Hilltop Securities. Public Finance Services generated a 4% increase in net revenues compared to the same period in the last year. Municipal advisory fees and underwriting revenues remained stable, while revenues from the public finance spoke businesses improved due to increase fees on our cash pool products.

Our structured finance net revenues increased 53% compared to the same period in the last year. This was primarily due to mortgage related business activity within the Florida market. While this was a very strong start to the year, we do anticipate a weaker outlook in the coming months as down payment assistance programs have slowed. In wealth management, net revenues were stable compared to last year’s first quarter as interest rates have remained elevated, which benefits our FDIC sweet program. Our fixed income business remains pressured, as the shape of the yield curve continues to act as a headwind for the business. We are still committed to the business and look to further enhance our sales distribution capabilities, while upholding our strong culture and risk management practices.

Overall, HilltopSecurities performed very well this quarter, and we continue to build on the business with recent hires that we’ve made from competitors who have pulled out of certain municipal and trading businesses. Moving to page 4. Hilltop maintains robust capital levels with a common equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 19.7%. Additionally, our tangible book value per share increase from year end 2023 by $0.09 to $28.44 despite the recent rise in rates. During the period, we returned $21 million to shareholders with $11 million in dividends and $10 million in share repurchases. Now, I’d like to give a brief update on the bank leadership transition that I mentioned in the fourth quarter earnings call. As discussed, Jerry Schaffner, the CEO of PlainsCapital Bank will be retiring on May 1, and I will take over as CEO of the bank, with Brian Heflin as President.

In preparation, we have established an internal transition team and have been making excellent progress and ensuring a smooth handoff in the coming weeks. We feel we are in a excellent position to build on the bank’s incredible legacy. And I look forward to working more closely with Brian, Pete, Darryl, Steve, and everyone else at the bank. Again, I want to thank Jerry for his partnership and friendship, as well as his dedication and leadership over his more than 42 years of service. Now, I will turn the presentation over to Will, to discuss our financials in more detail.

Will Furr: Thank you, Jeremy. I’ll start on Page 5. As Jeremy discussed for the first quarter of 2024, Hilltop reported consolidated income attributable to common stockholders of $27.7 million, equating to $0.42 per diluted share. Results for the first quarter include approximately $7.3 million of negative valuation adjustments related to our MSR asset. Approximately $5 million of the valuation adjustment relates to the signing of an LOI until all of the MSR backed by conventional mortgage loans. LOI covers the sale of approximately $47 million of MSR value as of March 31. As we’ve noted in the past, the MSR asset is not a strategic asset for Hilltop, and while we may choose to retain MSRs at times through the cycle, our long-term view remains that we will maintain a small MSR asset, sufficient to support the sale of certain products to PrimeLending and we will execute bulk sales when we deem appropriate to limit our overall exposure on the balance sheet.

In addition, as of March 31, Hilltop reported a reduction of the allowance for credit losses of $7.2 million, which includes $4.3 million of net charge-offs and a net $2.9 million release of the allowance, largely driven by the improvement in the economic scenario from December 31. Turning to Page 6. Hilltop continues to leverage the Moody’s S7 scenario, which calls for a mild recession to begin in Q1 of 2025. The 1231, the scenario predicted that a mild recession will begin in the first quarter of 2024. The shift in the timing of the recession is the key driver to the economic impact and resulting release of reserves for the first quarter. Allowance for credit losses of $140 million builds an ACL to total loans HFI ratio of 1.29%, as of March 31.

As we’ve stated since the introduction of CECL, we continue to believe that the allowance for credit losses could be volatile and the future changes in the allowance will be driven by net loan growth in the portfolio, credit migration trends and changes to the macroeconomic outlook overtime. Given the current uncertainties regarding inflation, interest rates, the future outlook for GDP growth and unemployment rates, volatility could be heightened over the coming quarters. Moving to Page 7. As noted in prior quarters, we continue to believe that the segments of our loan portfolio with the most significant potential for risk exposure include the non-owner occupied office and retail portfolios. As is provided in the table these portfolios total $851 million at March 31st, and maintain an aggregate ACL coverage ratio of 3%, which is modestly higher than what was maintained at December 31st.

Moving to page 8. Net interest income in the first quarter equated to $104 million, including $1.3 million of purchase accounting accretion. Versus the prior year period, net interest income decreased by $18 million or 15%, driven primarily by the ongoing increases of deposit costs. Over the last quarter, our loan, securities and cash yields have remained relatively stable consistent with Fed funds rate. We continue to expect the deposit competition will remain very intense for the remainder of the year causing NII and NIM o remain pressure throughout to 2024. Our estimates for future NII and NIM currently reflect our expectation that the Fed will maintain stable rates until late 2024 executing a single 25 basis point reduction at their December meeting.

Moving to page 9. The table in the upper left of the page highlights available liquidity sources at March 31st. As a period end including the Fed discount window, Hilltop maintained available liquidity of approximately $7.4 billion, well in excess of deposits that are both uninsured and uncollateralized, which equated to $4.5 billion at the period end. As we’ve noted in prior quarterly updates, we do expect that interest-bearing deposit betas could have continued to drift modestly higher and will end the cycle between 66% and 70%. As of March 31st, the cumulative interest-bearing deposit beta for this portion of the rate cycle was 66%. Turning to page 10. First quarter average total deposits are approximately $10.7 billion and have declined by approximately $363 million or 3% versus the fourth quarter of 2023.

On an ending balance basis, deposits declined by $179 million to $10.9 billion from the prior quarter ending balance level. Turning to page 11. As it’s highlighted in the chart, the bank returned $377 million of broker dealer sweep deposits and $42 million are brokered CDs, which mature during the period, adjusting for these items, period in deposits rose by $240 million from December, 31 levels. We were pleased to see our customer deposits growing; the growth has been centered in our higher cost offerings. In particular, our top tier money market and interest-bearing checking are attracting the preponderance of new deposits that have moved into the bank. As a result of total interest-bearing deposit cost continue to rise with the blended rate equating to 358 basis points as of March 31st, up from 340 basis points to December 31st.

Given the current competitive environment, and our focus on retaining and growing our customer deposits, we do expect that overall interest bearing deposit costs will continue to increase over the coming quarters. Further in the table in the lower portion of the page, we provide some detail into our CD maturities and the average rate of those maturing CDs. Turning to the page 12. Well, our non-interest income for the first quarter of 2024 equated to $182 million. First quarter mortgage-related income and fees decreased by $2 million versus the first quarter of 2023. Although, total mortgage fees declined in the period, we have seen signs of early stabilization in both revenue per loan and origination volumes, which were relatively stable with the prior year levels.

While neither revenue nor origination volumes reflect what we would describe as a strong market, we have seen modest improvement in home inventory levels of recent. However, interest rates have remained volatile throughout the first and early parts of the second quarters in 2024. Further, while we’ve seen improved levels of gain on sale margins, that improvement has been largely offset by lower per loan origination fees. This revenue dynamic will continue to shift rapidly and will remain volatile until market interest rates are more predictable and likely stabilize at lower levels. Other income increased by $13.5 million versus the prior year period, driven primarily by improved trading activity in our structured finance business at HilltopSecurities.

The strength in the structured finance revenue reflected the pull-through of secondary market volume from the prior quarter’s strong lock volumes, specifically related to certain states’ continued support of their down payment assistance programs. For most states, those subsidies have been depleted and the business will likely see a decline in activity until further state subsidies are put in place. It remains important to recognize that both the fixed income services and structured finance businesses at HilltopSecurities can be volatile from period-to-period as they are impacted by interest rates, overall market liquidity, volatility, and production trends, which may include additional subsidies provided by the state to support their down payment assistance programs.

Turning to Page 13. Non-interest expenses remained relatively stable from the same period in the prior year. While compensation, occupancy, and professional services related expenses declined modestly versus the prior year period, other expenses moved modestly higher driven by production-related costs, including quotation and clearing costs and servicing and tax costs across HilltopSecurities and PrimeLending. Looking forward, we expect expenses other than variable compensation will remain relatively stable as the ongoing focused efforts related to streamlining our operations and improving productivity continue to support lower headcount and improve throughput across our franchise, helping to offset the ongoing inflationary pressures that persist in the market.

Moving to Page 14. First quarter average HFI loans equated to $7.8 billion in 2024, down $59 million from the prior year period levels. As we’ve noted in prior quarters, overall market demand for funded commercial loans remains challenged, driven by the combination of the borrower’s preference to leverage less debt at current market rates and the structural requirements that new projects and investments require more upfront equity to meet key underwriting thresholds. Given these ongoing challenges, we restarted the retention of originated mortgages on the balance sheet during the first quarter and expect to continue retaining these assets for the coming months and quarters. The level of future retention will be driven by a combination of factors, including the return profile of held mortgages, commercial loan demand, and the long-term value comparison to securities and other investment options, but will be within the current guidance levels of $0 million to $20 million per month.

Turning to page 15. During the fourth quarter call, we noted a marked increase in total non-performing assets during that period and noted that the increase was largely driven by the negative migration of a single client relationship within our non-owner occupied commercial real estate portfolio. During the first quarter, management made the decision to move this loan to held for sale and engaged a loan sale services organization to support the potential disposition of this loan. That sale process continues and we do not have any specific updates as to the final disposition of this asset at this time. Overall, credit quality has remained generally solid through the first quarter. However, we did experience a higher level of charge off during the period, specifically addressing the loans that were charged off represented a disparate set of industry and locations and includes a charge off amount related to the loan discussed earlier that was moved to held for sale.

Currently, we do not see any prevailing trends that call this outsize concern in our portfolio. However, we continue to monitor all aspects of the portfolio very closely has higher interest rates, potentially lower utilization rates in certain segments of the commercial real estate and an expected slowdown in economic activity could have a negative impact on our clients and our portfolio. As is shown in the graph at bottom right of the page, the allowance for credit loss coverage at the bank ended the first quarter at 1.35% including mortgage warehouse lending. Moving to page 16. As we move into the second quarter of 2024 there continuous to be a lot of uncertainty in the market regarding interest rates, inflation and the overall health of the economy.

We’re pleased with the work that our team has delivered to position our company for times like these, our teammates across our franchise remain focused on delivering great customer service to our clients, attracting new customers to our franchise, supporting the communities where we serve, maintaining a moderate risk profile delivering long-term shareholder value. As is noted in the table, our outlook for 2024 reflects our current assessment of the economy and the markets where we participate. Further, as the market changes and we adjust our business to respond, we will provide updates to our outlook on future quarterly calls. Operator that concludes our prepared comments and we’ll turn the call back to you for the Q&A section of the call.

See also 15 Countries with the Largest Proven Oil Reserves in the World and 10 Fastest Growing Cities in Kentucky.

Q&A Session

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We’ll take our first question from Michael Rose with Raymond James.

Michael Rose: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe we could just start on the reserve release this quarter. I guess I was just a little bit surprised to see the general release. I think you cited may be better economic trends. I guess that’s kind of in contrast with you know what we’re seeing from a bunch of other banks that are actually you know, kind of building reserves. I understand that you know, clearly Texas — is going to hold up a lot better than most other places in the country. But I was just a little surprised by that. So maybe you just walk us through, you know what happened there and kind of what you’re seeing and maybe a little bit different than maybe what others are saying. Thanks.

Jeremy Ford: Well, thanks for the question. You know, as we’ve noted, we use a single scenario for our CECL evaluation and that’s the Moody’s S7 that’s been consistent for a series of quarters at this point. As management went through the evaluation of the economic scenarios, we felt like the Moody’s S7 at current year at 3/31 was the appropriate scenario to leverage. If you compare those time periods for the S7 3/31 and 12/31 what you’ll see is there is a shifting in the timing of the overall potential economic recession that they’re predicting. So, at 12/31, the scenario predicted that a recession would begin really in the later parts of the first quarter of 2024, that has moved now to the first quarter of 2025. Really, that shift in timing of the overall — of a potential recession really is what shifted and what caused the — as you can see on Page 6 in our slides there, the collected economic condition, the release there are $4.1 million.

So, it’s really just scenario-for-scenario, the adjustments. As we evaluated, our view has continued to be that the economy will move into a recessionary period in the future. And as a result, we adopted that scenario and believe that to be appropriate as of 3/31.

Michael Rose: Okay. I guess just as a follow-up, I’m just a little bit curious why you wouldn’t wait the downside scenarios a little bit higher. I mean, we’re kind of seeing that kind of across the board, large and small. Any reason why you’d be kind of in contrast to kind of what we’re seeing from others? Thanks.

Will Furr: Well, we don’t wait scenarios. Again, we take we take we take one scenario that we believe most adequately reflects the economic outlook. And so as a result of that we don’t take multiple scenarios and then try to wait our way into a blended average. So, that’s really likely the delta that you’re seeing between others, with [indiscernible] not being able to tell others are doing it.

Michael Rose: Got it, appreciate it. And then I know we saw a decent step down in the margin this quarter. Can you just talk about some of the levers whether it be on the liability side in terms of deposit cost betas and then maybe what you might have in terms of loan maturities and maybe some securities maturities this year? And then how should we — putting all that together, how should we, kind of, expect the margin to, kind of, trend from here? I would think that it would be, kind of, up, particularly as you get the benefit — seasonal benefit from some mortgage pick up, even though it’s a little bit more muted, maybe than it might have been just given a higher for longer backdrop? Thanks.

Will Furr: And so for margin as you as you noted, 285 basis points for the first quarter, obviously down linked-quarter, down year-on-year. I think as we evaluate, kind of, the ongoing aspects of our portfolio, we’ve got a handful of things that are occurring first, and I noticed this in my comments. We do expect that interest-bearing deposit costs are continue to rise. We provided some perspective to our CD maturities in the materials. But we do have a 5% 90-day CD that are currently in the market and so we’re seeing the preponderance of CDs roll into that product. So, that will continue to drift higher. We think that’s the competitive product at this point. Secondarily, we’re seeing deposit flows into our in our higher cost money market tiers, which are our larger balance tiers, but nonetheless, that’s where the dollars have flown into here over the last couple of quarters.

And so we are expecting to see — say a consistent drift higher and overall interest bearing deposit costs. On the loan side, most of our – the vast majority of our variable rate loans have already reset, and if you believe that rates are going to remain reasonably stable, they’ll be stable, the same. From a fixed rate perspective, we’ve got about $350 million of loans that will come up for renewal here for the balance of the year that will allow us the opportunity to reprice those loans and so we would expect that to occur, the blended rate on that is – on those loans at current is just under – just under 5%. So obviously, we view that as a tailwind. Securities Portfolios got a yield just at 3%. We’re continuing to allow that portfolio to run down and those cash flows are reinvested either in cash which are deposited near to Fed or into the retained mortgages that we talked about.

So we also view that as a favorable. I think just given the sheer size, we would expect that NIM will be pressured here into the second and third quarters and then likely start to turn from there in the fourth quarter. Again, presuming that the Fed holds rates reasonably stable, but then again, the overall flows would cause you to be more stable but likely has a little bit of a – a little bit of a negative bias here over the next – the next two quarters.