First Bancshares Posts Record Q3 Profit, EPS Up 27% to $1.05
FBSI has more than doubled off its 52-week low of $14.8 on light trading volume (0.2× avg).
Summary
First Bancshares reported record Q3 net income of $2.56 million, or $1.05 per diluted share, up 27% from $0.83 a year ago. Net interest margin expanded to 4.87% from 4.62%, driven by 26.9% growth in net interest income on strong loan growth. Asset quality remains exceptionally clean: nonaccrual loans fell 43% to just 0.14% of net loans, and the allowance for credit losses is over ten times nonaccruals. The Westcliffe, Colorado branch contributed a full quarter, lifting return on assets to 1.53% and return on equity to 14.18%. This is the sixth consecutive quarter of record earnings, and the balance sheet grew 20% year-over-year to $686 million in assets with no holding company debt.
At the time of this announcement, FBSI was trading at $34.00 on OTC in the Finance sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $82M. The 52-week trading range was $14.80 to $35.96. This news item was assessed with positive market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: GlobeNewswire.