MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MOFG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Terence McEvoy: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Appreciate it.

Chip Reeves: Absolutely. Thank you, Terry.

Operator: Thank you, Terry. We have our next question comes from Damon DelMonte from KBW. Damon, your line is now open.

Damon DelMonte: Hey, good morning, everyone. I hope you guys are all doing well today. Just wanted to dig in a little bit on the margin — Good morning. Just wanted to dig in a little bit on the margin. I understand you’re seeing some near-term pressure here. But Barry, if you guys — there’s two more rate hikes of 25 basis points at the Fed. Just kind of given the market dynamics and on the funding side of the equation, can you give us a little bit more perspective on where the margin could kind of bottom out?

Barry Ray: Yes. It’s — obviously, Damon, there’s a lot of puts and takes with respect to where the margin ultimately lands. I’ll do my best to answer your question. I think that in the near term, there will be downward pressure on the margin as expected, the FOMC continues to increase short-term rates, and our deposit betas pick up. As we discussed earlier on the — so that’s going to be on the liability side. On the asset side, we will have some benefit on the asset side to those same rates. It’s about 17% of our portfolio reprices within a quarter or so. So those will be some of the positives. And the reason why it’s difficult to articulate where it’s going to bottom is, there’s uncertainty around what’s going to happen. What’s going to happen to deposits, for example. The shape of the yield curve is a challenge. So it’s difficult to answer. My best answer Damon is, I think there’s going to be some downward pressure in the near term.

Damon DelMonte: Okay. Can you — do you have the December margin for the month?

Barry Ray: I think we’re around 2.87% for the month of December.

Damon DelMonte: Okay. So — all right. So it ended higher than for the quarter. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you. And then just with respect to exposure to asset classes, which may come under additional pressure in the coming quarters, do you guys did do a lot in the office space? Can you remind us what your exposure is there?

Chip Reeves: This is Gary Sims, Chief Credit Officer, that will answer that for us, Damon. Go ahead, Gary.

Gary Sims: Thanks, Damon. Like most banks, our size office is not really a preferred asset class right now. As a result, we’re not overexposed. We have 4.5% of our portfolio in office, and that’s down year-to-year. That’s down from 4.7% down to 4.5%. And to kind of give you an idea, our stance on it, when you look at our construction category, we don’t have any office exposure in our construction category. So for the most part, we’re not doing new office space. That probably gives you the best idea of how we feel about office. The existing office portfolio primarily — well, about 60% of it is in the Minnesota and Twin Cities market. We feel that, that portfolio is relatively stable right now, backed up by good leases, et cetera, but we’re just not in the market to be adding to that exposure right now. Does that help?

Damon DelMonte: Great. Yes, that’s very helpful. I appreciate the color. That’s all I had for now. Thanks a lot.

Chip Reeves: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you, Damon. Our next question comes from Brian Martin from Janney. Brian, your line is now open.

Brian Martin: Hi. Good morning, everyone.

Chip Reeves: Good morning, Brian.