Q3 2024 OceanFirst Financial Corp Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Alfred Goon; Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Development; OceanFirst Financial Corp

Christopher Maher; Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank; OceanFirst Financial Corp

Joseph Lebel; President, Chief Operating Officer, Director; OceanFirst Financial Corp

Patrick Barrett; Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President; OceanFirst Financial Corp

Frank Schiraldi; Analyst; Piper Sandler

Daniel Tamayo; Analyst; Raymond James

Tim Switzer; Analyst; KBW

David Bishop; Analyst; Hovde Group LLC

Matthew Breese; Analyst; Stephens Inc

Manuel Navas; Analyst; DA Davidson & Co

Christopher Marinac; Analyst; Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Presentation

Operator

Good morning and thank you all for attending the OceanFirst Financial Corp third-quarter '24 earnings release conference call. My name is Brika, and I will be your moderator for today. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Alfred Goon, Investor Relations at OceanFirst. Thank you. You may proceed, Alfred.

Alfred Goon

Thank you very much. Good morning and welcome to the OceanFirst third-quarter 2024 earnings call. I am Alfred Goon, SVP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Before we kick off the call, we'd like to remind everyone that our quarterly earnings release and related earnings supplement can be found on the company website, oceanfirst.com.
Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements and may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. All participants should refer to our SEC filings including those found on Forms 8-K, 10-Q, and 10-K for a complete discussion of forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results to differ from those statements.
Thank you, and now I will turn the call over to Christopher Maher, Chairman and CEO.

Christopher Maher

Thank you, Alfred. Good morning and thank you to all for being able to join our third-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. This morning, I'm joined by our President, Joe Lebel, and our Chief Financial Officer, Pat Barrett. We appreciate your interest in our performance and this opportunity to discuss our results with you
This morning, we will provide brief remarks about the financial and operating performance for the quarter and some color regarding the outlook for our business. We may refer to the slides filed in connection with the earnings release throughout the call. After our discussion, we look forward to taking your questions.
Our financial results for the third quarter included GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.42. Our earnings reflected stabilization of net interest income which remained essentially flat at $82 million compared to the prior length quarter.
Operating expenses increased by $5 million to $64 million and include $1.7 million of non-recurring operating expenses related to the acquisitions of Garden State Home Loans and Spring Garden Capital, which we'll discuss later. These investments will support expansion in our fee revenue and specialty finance offerings respectively, and both will be modestly accretive to earnings.
Asset quality metrics continue to remain strong as non-performing loans and loans 30 to 89 days past due as a percentage of total loans receivable were 28 basis points and 15 basis points respectively. Loan recoveries have $88,000 for the quarter.
Capital levels continue to build with our estimated common equity Tier I capital ratio increasing to 11.3% and continued growth in tangible book value which increased by $0.35 to $19.28.
Tangible book value per share has grown 8% as compared to the same period last year. Capital growth was sustained this quarter while the company repurchased an incremental 87,000 shares under the company's repurchase program. Through September 30,2024, we've repurchased nearly 1.4 million shares at a weighted average cost of $15.38.
Further on capital management, the board approved the quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per common share. This is the company's 111th consecutive quarterly cash dividend and represents 50% of GAAP earnings. With solid credit metrics and our bolstered capital position, we are now increasingly focused on driving organic growth in Q4 and into 2025.
At this point, I'll turn the call over to Joe to provide some more details regarding our performance during the third quarter and our efforts to increase organic growth rates.

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