First Hawaiian Bank’s net income spiked fivefold in the fourth quarter primarily due to one-time adjustments, but even without them surpassed analysts’ expectations.
The state’s largest bank also reported Thursday it was increasing its dividend by 2 cents a share, to 26 cents. It will be payable March 8 to shareholders of record at the close of business Feb. 25.
“2018 was another milestone year for First Hawaiian as we celebrated our 160th anniversary, and we capped it off with a great fourth quarter,” First Hawaiian Chairman and CEO Bob Harrison said in a statement. “We had solid core earnings, driven by strong growth in loans and deposits, expansion in the net interest margin and excellent asset quality.”
Holding company First Hawaiian Inc. said net income rose to $60 million, or 44 cents a share, from $11.7 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Its core earnings, which exclude the nonrecurring items, increased to $77.9 million, or 58 cents a share, to beat analysts’ consensus estimate of 52 cents a share. Core earnings in the year-earlier quarter were $59.2 million, or 42 cents a share.
The bank took a hit to its fourth-quarter net income after restructuring its balance sheet earlier this month by selling lower-yielding securities for an after-tax loss of about $17.6 million, or 13 cents a share. That sale was retroactively recognized in its fourth-quarter results. The bank also said an additional $2.1 million after-tax loss from those sales will be recognized in the current quarter. First Hawaiian said the restructuring will provide an approximate $6.1 million after-tax earnings benefit this year.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, First Hawaiian took a $47.6 million one-time charge against earnings after revaluing tax-related assets as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts, which went into effect in 2018 and reduced the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent.
First Hawaiian’s loans rose 6.5 percent year over year to $13.1 billion. Deposits, which rose 2.8 percent from the third quarter, fell 2.6 percent from the year- earlier period to $17.2 billion after the bank reduced its higher-paying public deposits from state and local city and county entities. Assets rose 0.7 percent to $20.7 billion.
FOURTH-QUARTER NET
$60 million
YEAR-EARLIER NET
$11.7 million
