Stellar Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Brad Milsaps: Got it? And then I know you had the loans that you sold and cleaned up this quarter. So that probably drove a little bit higher core provision. A lot of companies and they come together, because of the marks they, maybe have a really low provision, for a certain period of time. Can you sort of help us think about how you guys will be tackling that I know, there’s a lot of moving parts with CECL and marks, etcetera. But just kind of curious how to think about sort of your core load loss provisioning? Right.

Paul Egge: I think where we sit right now is how we’re looking at net loan growth in the future. If there’s a lot of moving parts that got our provision, pardon me, our allowance for credit losses to 1.2% of loans. But kind of in a rule of thumb as to how we were looking at budgeting, we, we think that’s appropriate for net loan growth expectations in 2023. There was a lot that went into it. And a big piece of that is a little bit of overseeing the economy. We definitely leaned a little bit more conservative relative to prior periods. And we believe that’s appropriate. And we’ll continue to keep our finger on the pulse and go for it.

Brad Milsaps: Got it. And then just final two for me, just for clarity. The 265 expense number, does that include CDI? And then what would be a good combined tax rate for the combined company?

Paul Egge: All right, so that includes CDI, but it doesn’t include non-M&A expenses, and measure of expenses that we’ll be rolling on mostly in the fourth quarter first quarter, I should say. So the need to make that distinction was it the last part of the question?

Brad Milsaps: No just the cash rate for the combined company.

Paul Egge: All right, I put it over here under 20. And that will largely be a function of dynamic security portfolio.

Brad Milsaps: Got it? Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Next question comes from line of Matt Olney with Stephens. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Matt Olney: Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Just following up on that last question from from Brad on expenses. Bob, what’s your estimate of the remaining noncore expenses we could see for the rest of the year.

Robert Franklin: About $5 million front end loaded, might come in less.

Matt Olney: And then we’ll head on to liquidity. I think you mentioned on the last call that you sold some securities immediately following the deal closing. Remind me of that amount of securities. And I guess from here, what kind of cash flow are you looking for from your existing securities in the portfolio in 2023?

Paul Egge: Sure thanks. We sold about just over 350 million in securities, which represented about 59% of the CBTX portfolio that was brought over. And after that sale, we’re looking at annual cash flows, approximating the following a hair shorter $200 million a year, in the first couple of years. So we see a significant source of liquidity from a cash flow perspective coming out of the securities portfolio in the near term, to better position us.

Matt Olney: Okay, thanks for that, Paul. And then on the capital front, looks like the CT1s around 10%. It feels like that could build pretty quickly given the profitability here. But, any updated thoughts you have on capital, any other general capital actions being considered right now?