Independent Bank Corp. (NASDAQ:INDB) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Tengel: Yes, I don’t have an estimate, Mark. I don’t know if you do. We’d be speculating at this point.

Mark Ruggiero: Yes, I think it’s fair to say it isn’t at a range where it’s worth highlighting at this point, but we’ll give more guidance on that probably in the next quarter or two as we hopefully get to a little bit more of a clearer path on some of it.

Jeff Tengel: Yes. And honestly, that’s not a game changer for us, to be sure, but it’s really illustrative of a whole host of things that we’re looking at as we examine our expense base and as we think about the environment that we’re in. So I mentioned that in my prepared remarks as an example of some of the things that we’re looking at. There’s a whole host of other examples I could have given you. Each one of them, in and of themselves, aren’t going to move the needle, but when you add them all up, we think it all just kind of funnels back into being good expense managers.

Chris O’Connell: Got it. And on the deposit side, how much of the CD portfolio, I guess, has yet to reprice? I guess start there.

Mark Ruggiero: Yes, the impact is becoming less and less, which is the good news moving forward. And then in Q1, we expect about $800 million to mature and reprice. But I guess the positive there is that the weighted average coupon on that pool right now is high 3s, about 3.8%. So the repricing dynamic now is not as severe as it once was. And then I believe it’s another $750 million or so in Q2 that is set to mature. That is also at a high 3.8% weighted average coupon. So assuming today’s rain environment stays as is, you’d see that level potentially price up anywhere up to a full percentage point. But we hope that that would be more like a 50 or 75 basis point increase over the next couple of quarters in terms of the impact from CDE pricing.

Chris O’Connell: Great. That’s perfect. Thanks for taking my questions.

Jeff Tengel: Sure. Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Steve Moss with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Steve Moss: Just one follow-up for me on the buyback here. You guys bought $600 million worth of stock, and I know you have $100 million authorized. Just curious about your thoughts on the pace here going forward and how you guys are thinking maybe about issuing a new repurchase plan.

Jeff Tengel: Yes. Mark, do you want to take kind of the pace of play to date?

Mark Ruggiero: Sure. Yes. As you mentioned, you’re spot on. There’s about $30 million left under the existing plan. I think our posture hasn’t changed. It’s there to be opportunistic. We continue to think about executing on that plan through the lens of ensuring appropriate initial capital dilution and feel comfortable about the earn back and executing on that. So that’ll serve as the framework through the first quarter. Meaning really just opportunistic on depending where the stock price is, barring all other things, staying equal. And then I think it’s fair to talk about and be thinking about re-upping on a plan. Given our overall capital levels, we still feel we have really good handle on credit and stabilization of the funding.

So I think as a tool for deployment of capital going forward, we haven’t made any decisions on that, but I think it’s fair to suggest that would be a lever we would continue to look to throughout most of 2024, again being very opportunistic over where it makes sense to execute.

Steve Moss: Okay, appreciate that. And then one more, if I may, Mark, on the margin going back, you guys had some swap expirations in the second half of this past year. Just curious if there are any swap expirations in 2024 or 2025 that we should expect to help the margin.

Mark Ruggiero: Yes. In fact, we have probably on average, about $100 million matures on a quarterly basis throughout 2024. So I know for sure it’s $100 million in Q1, and then it’s somewhere between $50 million and $100 million in the out quarters as well. So that’s a reason why we’ve always talked about stabilization of the margin. There’s a couple of levers like that. It’s the hedge maturities. It’s allowing the securities portfolio to continue to run off without essentially just either paying down borrowings or holding cash at 5%. A lot of what’s running off on the securities book is at weighted average coupons of about one, one and a quarter. So we’re seeing good lift just from hedge maturities and securities runoff. In addition, to the loan repricing dynamic that we’ve been talking about. So at some point, once the deposit pressures subside, I think those three factors will be enough to offset and maintain the margin at the level we’ve got it to.

Steve Moss: Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate all the color.

Mark Ruggiero: No problem.

Operator: The next question comes from Laurie Hunsicker from SRP. Please go ahead.

Laurie Hunsicker: Yes, hi. Thanks. Good morning. Just one follow up, Mark. The non-interest income of $32 million. The other piece that was $7.8 million, looks outsized, looks a little bit outsized. Can you help us think about what’s non-recurring in that?