Q3 Net Income Jumps 41% as Margin Widens to 3.02%
SFST sits 45% above its 52-week low of $40.895.
Summary
Southern First earned $12.2 million, or $1.28 per diluted share, in Q3 2026 — up 41% and 21% respectively from a year ago and ahead of Q2's $1.20. Net interest margin expanded to 3.02% from 2.62% a year earlier and 2.87% last quarter, lifting net interest income 26% to $34.7 million on total revenue of $37.5 million. Growth was organic and fast: loans rose $145 million (14% annualized) to $4.2 billion and retail deposits added $163 million (18% annualized), while wholesale deposits were cut 32% year-over-year. Asset quality held, with nonperforming assets at 0.30% of total assets and net charge-offs of 0.07%, though the provision rose $375 thousand to $1.4 million on new loan volume. The one soft spot is noninterest income, down 20% to $2.9 million because the bank kept more mortgage loans on balance sheet instead of selling them. This follows the 8-K filed at 12:30 ET with the same figures.
At the time of this announcement, SFST was trading at $59.13 on NASDAQ in the Finance sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $560.1M. The 52-week trading range was $40.90 to $65.09. This news item was assessed with positive market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: PR Newswire.