Bank of Hawaii Corp. ended 2015 with its sixth straight quarter of double-digit loan growth as it continued to reap the benefits of an improving state economy.
The state’s second-largest bank said Monday that earnings increased 4 percent during the final three months of the year on the strength of a 14.2 percent jump in its lending portfolio.
“It was another good quarter driven primarily by continued growth in the Hawaii economy,” said Peter Ho, chairman, president and CEO of Bank of Hawaii. “For 2016 we’re looking for a largely similar result.”
Bankoh posted net income of $42.8 million, or 99 cents a share, compared with $41.2 million, or 94 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. The latest results topped the consensus estimate of 93 cents a share compiled from analysts by financial data firm FactSet.
| FOURTH-QUARTER NET
$42.8 million
YEAR-EARLIER NET
$41.2 million
|
Lending has been robust for the bank starting with its streak of year-over-year double-digit gains that began with a 10 percent rise in the third quarter of 2014. Subsequent increases were 13.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 and then gains in 2015 of 15.6 percent, 15.6 percent, 16.4 percent and now 14.2 percent. In the latest quarter, consumer loans jumped 16.1 percent from the year-earlier period and commercial lending surged 11.5 percent as the bank ended the year with $7.88 billion in loans.
“The commercial cycle has been going on for three years now, and at this point it’s getting pretty mature,” Ho said. “Obviously, we’ve been a beneficiary of an uptick in the cycle. There’s a possibility that the commercial cycle flattens out and hopefully gets replaced by growth in consumer lending. Employment and personal income have moved up nicely over the last year, so we hope to see additional growth in our consumer lending book. So it would be a substitution, if you will, from commercial, which has been our strength, to consumer, which is emerging at this point with faster growth than our commercial book.”
Ho said due to the bank’s high level of loan production that $1 million was set aside during the quarter for potential loan losses after not having done so in the previous three quarters of 2015 or in the year-earlier quarter.
“We took a provision for loan losses of $1 million in the quarter to account for the strong loan growth over the past year,” Ho said. “Our local credit environment remains strong as evidenced by net charge-offs of one-tenth of 1 percent during the quarter.”
Deposits also remained solid as they rose 4.9 percent to $13.25 billion while the bank’s net interest margin — the spread between lending and deposit rates — improved to 2.85 percent from 2.77 percent in the third quarter and 2.84 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
“I thought they put up a terrific quarter,” said banking analyst Aaron Deer of San Francisco-based Sandler O’Neill + Partners. “Their loan growth was strong and their margin widened. Probably the only thing negative in the quarter was an uptick in operating expenses. But I think a lot of that was tied to investments the bank is making in the franchise for new technology and other areas that should support its long-term growth.”
Bankoh’s noninterest expenses rose 5.5 percent in the quarter to $85.7 million from $81.2 million. The higher expenses included $1.3 million that was spent for the bank’s rollout of its chip-enabled debit cards, operating expenses of $1.1 million and severance expenses of $452,000. The expenses were partly offset by net gains of $3.9 million related to the sale of the bank’s Kapahulu Avenue branch and a branch on Guam. The Kapahulu branch was purchased in December for $4.53 million by Honolulu-based investment firm Tradewind Capital Group.
Bankoh said the improving Hawaii economy also resulted in the company’s nonperforming assets — delinquent loans not accruing interest and foreclosed real estate — declining 4.3 percent to $28.8 million from $30.1 million in the year-earlier period.
The bank’s net interest income, the difference between interest earned on loans/securities and what is paid out on deposits, rose 5.2 percent to $101.6 million from $96.6 million. Its noninterest income, which includes money earned from service charges and fees, slipped 2.3 percent to $44.8 million from $45.8 million.
For the year, Bankoh’s earnings dipped 1.4 percent to $160.7 million from $163 million in 2014, but earnings per share rose to $3.70 from $3.69 due to the company’s stock repurchase program.
Bankoh’s stock fell $1.36, or 2.4 percent, to $55.62 Monday after the earnings were announced prior to the opening of trading. The overall market also was down with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 1.3 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropping 1.6 percent.
