Farmers National Banc Reports 4Q Income of $2.15M

Thursday, January 29, 2015

CANFIELD, Ohio -- Farmers National Banc Corp., holding company of Farmers National Bank and Farmers Trust Co., Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.15 million, or 12 cents a share, and full-year 2014 net income of $8.97 million, or 48 cents a share, 15.2% better than 2013.

This compares to third-quarter net income of $2.28 million, or six cents a share, and fourth-quarter 2013 net income of $2.30 million, or 12 cents a share. Full-year 2013 net income was $7.78 million, or 41 cents a share.

Said Kevin J. Helmick, president and CEO, in a prepared statement, “Our improvement in net income for the year is a result of a 10% increase in noninterest income [includes bank fees, administering trusts, insurance commissions], a 2.3% decrease in noninterest expense [such as wages and benefits, rents, data processing, marketing and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. premiums], and a $440,000 improvement in net interest income. The continued focus on increasing fee-based revenues and reducing expenses has also contributed to an improvement in our efficiency ratio to 70.24% from 74.82% in [2013]. The bottom-line result of our efforts has increased earnings per share by 17.1%. We are also pleased to report that loans increased 5.3% in the past 12 months.”

Farmers pointed to these highlights:

• Total loans grew to $663.85 million at Dec. 31, an increase of 5.3% from $630.68 million a year earlier. Most of the increase came from lending for commercial real estate, residential real estate and commercial and industrial purposes, Farmers said. Loans comprised 59.4% of the bank’s average earning assets in 2014 compared to 56.1% in 2013.
• Noninterest income rose 10% to $15.30 million last year from $13.91 million in 2013. For the quarters ended Dec. 31, Sept. 30 and Dec. 31, 2013, the figures were $4.19 million, $3.88 million and $3.64 million.
• Noninterest expense was $38.16 million for the year, 2.3% less than $39.06 million in 2013. For the three months ended Dec. 31, Sept. 30 and Dec. 31, 2013, the figures were  $9.90 million, $9.78 million and $9.22 million.

Under its share-repurchase program, Farmers paid $1.2 million to buy back 150,868 shares on the open market during the fourth quarter. The repurchase program and odd-lot share buy-back program in the third quarter reduced the number of common shares outstanding by 2% from year-end 2013. Total shares outstanding at Dec. 31 numbered 18.41 million, at Sept. 30, 18.56 million.

Key performance ratios for the quarters ended Dec. 31, Sep. 30 and Dec. 31, 2013:

• Net interest margin (annualized), 3.63%, 3.58%, 3.53%.
• Return on average assets (annualized), 0.75%, 0.79%, 0.78%.
• Return on average equity (annualized), 6.91%, 7.37%, 7.23%.
• Efficiency ratio (tax equivalent basis), 71.20%, 70.17%, 67.96%.

Deposits held steady: $915.70 million at Dec. 31, $913.00 million at Sept. 30, and $915.27 at Dec. 31, 2013.

Measures of credit quality remained healthy as reflected by nonperforming loans standing at $8.48 million at year-end, $7.22 million at Sept. 30, and $9.09 million at yearend 2013. Nonperforming assets for the same dates were $8.63 million, $7.60 million and $9.26 million.

The ratios of nonperforming assets to total assets for the quarters ended Dec. 31, Sept. 30 and Dec. 31, 2013 were 0.76%, 0.67% and 0.81%.

Total assets held steady throughout the year, $1.137 billion at Dec. 31, $1.140 billion at Sept. 30 and $1.137 billion at year-end 2013.

SOURCE: Farmers National Banc Corp.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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