Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

The rates that we’re seeing in there are very attractive. And I’d just say that it’s a broad-based effort. I mean we’re seeing it all across the footprint. I wouldn’t really call out any geography as particularly better than the other, nor really any category. It’s more opportunistic. There are situations in this environment where I think incumbent banks are, for whatever reasons, having to do some either something irrational or have their eye off the ball, and we have had some really good opportunities with customers where we’ve been maybe a secondary provider to come in and really grow to a full relationship and bring some things into the pipeline that we’re pretty excited about.

Bob Fehlman: And David, in addition to the pricing on the risk side is the push to bring that full relationship in. You bring the deposits in, you bring treasury management in. We’ve been pushing that for a long time, but really the focus today is when loans coming on is what are the deposits, what are the relationships and no concessions unless there’s a full relationship out there. That brings to that total profitability of that customer.

David Feaster: That’s a really good point. And maybe last one for me. Just touching on capital priorities. Regulatory capital is continuing to grow. You’ve been active repurchasing stock. I’m just curious how you think about capital priorities and then just any thoughts on monetizing the swap? Is there any appetite to do that and utilize that capital for any type of balance sheet optimization or restructuring or anything?

Bob Fehlman: David, I’d say right now, we’re still staying the course. We evaluate each quarter whether we’re going to be in stock buyback or not. One thing we have committed to is we wouldn’t buy back more shares than our earnings less cash dividends. So we’ll evaluate this quarter, not saying we’ll be in it, not saying we’ll be out of it, but it would be a measured approach like we have if we do continue in it. Our capital, we’re comfortable, especially the regulatory side right now. I think a little bit of decline in TCE was expected with where the 10-year has moved. Other than that, I think, our TCE would have been up. So we’re comfortable in the range we’re and we think we’re doing a balance approach on stock buyback. Again, we’ll evaluate this quarter and determine where we’re — and we all like to say, I mean, given the environment where bank stocks are trading, we’d love to buy back as much as we can, but we think the prudent amount today is really to decide if you’re in or not and if you’re in to do it in a balanced with, again, your earnings less your cash dividends.

Jay Brogdon: Yes. And David, I’ll just jump in on the swap and the analytics around that. I mean that is also similar to what Bob described, analysis that we do all day, every day ongoing throughout every quarter. We’ll continue to do that. And if we think that we find something that’s advantageous given the market dynamics, particularly as it relates to that swap, then we would take advantage of it. But I’d say, thus far, we’ve been more than happy to have set path there.

David Feaster: Terrific. Thanks, everybody.

Operator: Our next question comes from Matt Olney with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Matt Olney: Hey, thanks. Good morning, guys.

Bob Fehlman: Good morning, Matt.

Jay Brogdon: Good morning, Matt.

Matt Olney: On the credit front, you mentioned that deeper review of some extended care nursings in the third quarter that followed the office deep dive in 2Q. As we kind of look forward into 4Q and next year, is there any kind of other deeper dive focused within any specific portfolio? And then I guess part two of that, it sounds like maybe as a result of what you looked at recently, you worked some credits out of the bank that you didn’t line up with your process. I’m curious what your thoughts are about the potential of seeing similar events in the future where you proactively work out some still performing credits out of the bank? Thanks.