The First Bancshares, holding company for The First, A National Banking Association, reported net earnings available to common shareholders of $2.5 million for the first quarter of 2016.
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This compares to net earnings available to common shareholders of $1.9 million reported for the first quarter of 2015 and $2.3 million in net earnings available to common shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2015.
Diluted earnings for the first quarter of 2016 were $0.46 per common share, compared to $0.34 per common share reported for the first quarter of 2015 and $0.42 per common share reported for the fourth quarter of 2015.
First quarter 2016 net earnings included $189,000 of an after tax gain on the conversion of our debit card provider. Excluding this non-operating income, operating earnings per share for the first quarter of 2016 were $0.43.
Both first quarter 2015 and fourth quarter 2015 included non-operating items as well, both representing $0.02 per share in adjustments.
M. Ray “Hoppy†Cole, president CEO, commented, "We are excited about the strong start for 2016, posting a 29.6% increase in net income as compared to the same period in 2015. We continue to focus on broad based growth across all of our markets which is positively impacting our operating results and returns.
"The first quarter was the first full operating period for TMC, our recent acquisition in Jackson, MS. The results were well ahead of forecast in terms of both revenue and profitability."
Consolidated assets increased $96.8 million or 8.5% to $1.2 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. Total loans were $797.8 million at March 31, 2016 as compared to $772.5 million at December 31, 2015 representing an increase of 3.3%.
Increased loan volume was spread across the real estate categories with commercial real estate experiencing the largest growth.
Fundings for commercial real estate loans increased $16.8 million or 6.6% quarter over quarter divided equally between owner occupied and income producing non-owner occupied properties.
Total deposits increased $124.4 million or 13.6% to $1,041.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. This increase reflects seasonal fluctuations in our public deposit portfolio.
Total deposits adjusted for seasonal public fund changes increased $7.1 million or 1.0% for quarter ended March 31, 2016.
Nonperforming assets totaled $11.3 million at March 31, 2016, an increase of $0.4 million compared to $10.9 million at December 31, 2015.
The ALLL/total loans ratio was 0.88% at March 31, 2016 and 0.87% at December 31, 2015. ■