SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

William Carroll Jr.: Yes. I think some. I do think the geographic diversification that we have helped some of that, so we can price. And I think we’ve really worked hard over the course of the last couple of years, Feddie, building that kind of that more solid core funding base and I think that’s showing a little bit now. Not that we’re immune from rate pressures and we’re going to continue to still have to defend, as Ron and I both said in our comments, we’ve got to continue to defend those core rate-sensitive deposits. But I do think it helps. I think it allows us to kind of take a look at pricing in other markets. And if we need to adjust one market versus the other, it allows us to do that. So I think overall it helps, but doesn’t make us immune. It’s, to your point…

Ronald Gorczynski: It’s tough everywhere.

William Carroll Jr.: To your point, we’ve — a lot of our competitors, especially here in the great State of Tennessee are pushing some of these rates a little higher than we’d like to see. But that’s just — that’s part of it. We’ll continue to defend it.

Feddie Strickland: Got it. No, that’s a great point on the investments you guys have made on the deposit side. There’s certainly not a whole lot of banks that can let some of the higher stuff — higher rate stuff walk away. But just one last question from me, just can you talk through what you’re seeing in that area just outside Nashville? How much opportunity do you think that you have on the loan side there? And how much growth do you think we could see in that market over the course of the year?

William Carroll Jr.: Obviously, Nashville’s MSA is arguably one of the best in the country. A lot of competition. I mean, when you got a market like that, it’s an extremely competitive market. We know that. But it kind of goes back to the team you got and the talent you have. We’ve got some great folks in our Middle Tennessee group. I do believe that we’ll have some nice opportunities to grow Nashville. We’re looking strategically and looking at how we want to expand in that zone. We think that is a zone that we can and want to grow in. And so as far as how much growth for us, it’s kind of tough to say. It will be a function of really kind of the strategies that we want to execute this year. But there’s a good upside there for us and looking forward to watching this Nashville team grow for our bank.

Feddie Strickland: Got it. I appreciate you guys taking my questions.

William Carroll Jr.: Thanks, Feddie.

Ronald Gorczynski: Thanks.

Operator: Thank you, Feddie. We have our next question comes from Catherine Mealor from KBW. Catherine, your line is now open.

Catherine Mealor: Thanks. Good morning.

William Carroll Jr.: Good morning, Catherine.

Ronald Gorczynski: Good morning.

Catherine Mealor: I just want to throw it back to the margin and I think about loan yields. I know you gave the December loan yield was 5.08%, I think, is what you said. And so as we think about the piece of the variable rate of your book that resets over the, what you call the longer term, that $561 million that resets over three months, what’s the kind of pace that you see that happening? And maybe as you think about where you see loan yields going over the kind of the course of the year, how would you think about peak loan yields or beta or the re-pricing opportunities from that piece of the loan book?