WesBanco Announces Third Quarter 2018 Net Income

WHEELING, W.Va., Oct. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WesBanco, Inc. ("WesBanco") (Nasdaq: WSBC), a diversified, multi-state bank holding company, today announced net income and related earnings per share for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018.  Net income for the three months ended September 30, 2018 was $32.5 million, with diluted earnings per share of $0.64, compared to $26.4 million and $0.60 per diluted share, respectively, for the third quarter of 2017.  For the nine months ended September 30, 2018, net income was $99.2 million, or $2.11 per diluted share, compared to $78.6 million, or $1.78 per diluted share, for the 2017 period.  Net income excluding after-tax merger-related expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2018, increased 55.6% year-over-year to $41.0 million, or $0.81 per diluted share as compared to $0.60 per diluted share in the prior year quarter (non-GAAP measure).  On the same basis, net income for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 increased 42.2% year-over-year to $112.2 million, or $2.38 per diluted share versus $1.79 per diluted share in the prior year period (non-GAAP measure).

On April 5, 2018, WesBanco consummated the merger with First Sentry Bancshares, Inc. ("FTSB"), a bank holding company headquartered in Huntington, WV with $0.7 billion in assets, excluding goodwill.  In addition, on August 20, 2018, WesBanco consummated the merger with Farmers Capital Bank Corporation ("FFKT"), a bank holding company headquartered in Frankfort, KY with approximately $1.6 billion in assets, excluding goodwill.  Financial results for both FTSB and FFKT have been included in WesBanco's results from their respective merger consummation dates.

Financial and operational highlights:

• Execution of well-defined long-term growth strategies driving strong profitability
• Year-to-date income before provisions for credit losses and income taxes increased 6.8% year-over-year, or 20.4% when excluding merger-related costs
• Sequential improvement in net interest margin reflects partial quarter of recently consummated FFKT acquisition
• Solid expense management as demonstrated by a year-to-date efficiency ratio of 55.0% (non-GAAP measure), despite the inclusion of FFKT's operating expenses since August 20, 2018
• Continued strength across key credit quality metrics
• Successful completion of the merger with FFKT to become a top ten financial institution in the state of Kentucky

"We are pleased with our financial performance during the third quarter of 2018 as we remain focused on enhancing long-term shareholder value," said Todd F. Clossin, President and Chief Executive Officer of WesBanco. "We continued to drive strong profitability and positive operating leverage while successfully executing upon our long-term growth and diversification strategies and maintaining our legacy of sound credit quality in the third quarter."

Mr. Clossin added, "On August 20^th, we welcomed the customers and employees of Farmers Capital Bank and its banking affiliate, United Bank & Capital Trust Company, into WesBanco.  I am excited about our opportunities in Kentucky, as we have grown from not having a presence two years ago to now being a top ten financial institution in the state.  We look forward to maintaining a strong commitment to client service and community banking, as we provide our newest customers with a broader array of banking services."

Balance Sheet

Portfolio loans of $7.7 billion, as of September 30, 2018, increased 21.2% when compared to the prior year period due to the acquisitions of FTSB and FFKT.  Total organic loans were relatively flat at just 0.5% down year-over-year, when excluding the consumer loan portfolio de-emphasis strategy, or down 1.2% in total.  The year-over-year decline in total organic loan growth resulted from continued targeted reductions in the consumer portfolio to reduce its risk profile, lower home equity loan balances due to lower demand as a result of higher interest rates, elevated levels of commercial real estate loans moving to an aggressive secondary financing market, and continued deleveraging by commercial customers reflective of the current operating environment and higher cash levels from tax reform.  Total deposits increased 25.9% year-over-year to $8.9 billion due to the FTSB and FFKT acquisitions.  Continuing to reflect the strength of our legacy footprint, total deposits, excluding CDs, increased 3.4% organically, driven by 4.8% organic growth in interest bearing and non-interest bearing demand deposits.

Credit Quality

Our strong legacy of credit and risk management is reflected in the strength of our credit quality ratios as we continue to focus on prudent lending standards while remaining disciplined and balanced on loan growth.  As of September 30, 2018, despite the addition of approximately $1.4 billion of loans from the acquisitions of FTSB and FFKT, non-performing assets, past due loans, and criticized and classified loans decreased year-over-year on both an absolute dollar basis and as a percentage of the portfolio, excluding certain underperforming commercial loans held for sale related to recent mergers.  Non-performing assets as a percentage of total assets of 0.35%, non-performing loans as a percentage of total portfolio loans of 0.49%, and annualized net charge-offs as a percentage of average portfolio loans of 0.02%, on a year-to-date basis, have continued to show improvement and have declined to the lowest levels in many years.  The modest absolute dollar increase in those categories from the sequential quarter was due to the FFKT merger.  Further reflecting the consistently high quality of the loan portfolio, the provision for credit losses decreased from $2.5 million in the third quarter of 2017 to $1.0 million in the current quarter, a result of net recoveries in the quarter of 0.02% and overall improved credit ratios.  Year-to-date, the provision decreased 35.5% due to net charge-offs of 0.02% and the improved credit ratios.

Net Interest Margin and Income

The net interest margin for the third quarter of 2018 increased 2 basis points year-over-year to 3.50%.  The net interest margin benefited from increases in the Federal Reserve Board's target federal funds rate through the past year and partial quarter benefit from the higher margins on the acquired FFKT net assets, partially offset by higher funding costs as well as a flattening of the yield curve.  Also impacting the year-over-year change in the net interest margin was a six basis point reduction related to the lower tax-equivalency of the state and local municipal tax-exempt securities resulting from the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act".  The increase in the cost of interest bearing liabilities was primarily due to higher rates for interest bearing public funds, higher tier money market accounts, and Federal Home Loan Bank and other borrowings.  Further, reflecting the benefit of our legacy deposit footprint, the year-to-date deposit beta on the four federal funds rate increases since the year ago quarter was 15%, or only 11% when including the strong growth in non-interest bearing deposits.  Lastly, accretion from acquisitions benefited the third quarter net interest margin by approximately 11 basis points, as compared to 12 basis points in the prior year period, and it was 10 basis points for the year-to-date period versus 9 basis points for the same 2017 period.

Net interest income increased $15.7 million, or 21.1%, during the third quarter of 2018 as compared to the same quarter of 2017 due to an 18.1% increase in average total earning assets, primarily driven by the FTSB and FFKT acquisitions and related accretion from purchase accounting.  For the nine months ended September 30, 2018, net interest income increased $28.4 million, or 13.1%, due to higher average total earning assets from a larger investment portfolio and the $2.2 billion in earning assets acquired from FTSB and FFKT.

Non-Interest Income

For the third quarter of 2018, non-interest income of $26.2 million increased $5.3 million, or 25.5%, from the third quarter of 2017, driven by the FTSB and FFKT acquisitions.  The associated larger customer deposit base and higher transaction volumes drove the year-over-year increases in electronic banking fees and service charges on deposits.  Higher trust fees were due to a 21% increase in trust assets from a combination of the acquisition of FFKT's trust business and organic growth, as well as improvement in the equity markets.  Other income increased $1.0 million primarily due to a $0.6 million increase in commercial customer loan swap-related income.  In addition, mortgage banking income increased $0.4 million, or 37.9%, due to the strength of the residential mortgage lending program.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2018, non-interest income increased $7.8 million, or 11.8%.  The primary drivers of this year-to-date increase were increased customer levels, transaction volumes, mortgage banking income, and trust assets, as discussed above.

Non-Interest Expense

Total operating expenses continued to be well-controlled during the third quarter of 2018, despite the inclusion of FFKT's operating expenses since August 20^th.  The FFKT cost savings of 35% announced in April remain on track for 75% of the anticipated savings to be achieved during 2019 and 100% thereafter.  Excluding merger-related expenses, non-interest expense increased $9.6 million, or 17.1%, compared to the prior year period, reflecting the two acquisitions.  This year-over-year increase is primarily due to higher salaries and wages, employee benefits, net occupancy, and equipment costs associated with additional staffing and financial center locations from the two acquisitions.  These increases were balanced by strong discretionary expense management as demonstrated by the 148 basis point year-over-year decrease in the efficiency ratio to 55.6%.

Excluding merger-related expenses in both years, non-interest expense during the first nine months of 2018 increased $12.2 million, or 7.4%, compared to the prior year period, reflecting the acquisition of both FTSB and FFKT, partially offset by strong legacy expense management.

Provision for Income Taxes

The effective income tax rate and associated provision for income taxes for the third quarter of 2018 are reflective of the recently enacted "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act", which lowered the statutory Federal income tax rate for corporations to 21%.  During the third quarter, the effective tax rate was 16.71% as compared to 28.54% last year, while the provision for income taxes decreased $4.0 million to $6.5 million, despite higher year-over-year pre-tax income.

Capital

WesBanco continues to maintain strong regulatory capital ratios as both consolidated and bank-level regulatory capital ratios are well above the applicable "well-capitalized" standards promulgated by bank regulators and the BASEL III capital standards.  At September 30, 2018, Tier I leverage was 11.22%, Tier I Risk-Based capital was 14.32%, Total Risk-Based capital was 15.20%, and the Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio ("CET 1") was 12.41%.  Tangible common equity also remained strong at 8.66% at period-end.  Record earnings achieved during 2017, strong regulatory capital and liquidity positions, and solid execution on well-defined long-term operational and growth strategies enabled WesBanco to increase the quarterly cash dividend by 11.5% to $0.29 per share during February of this year.  This was the eleventh increase during the last eight years, representing a cumulative increase of 107%.

Conference Call and Webcast

WesBanco will host a conference call to discuss the Company's financial results for the third quarter of 2018 at 3:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 25, 2018.  Interested parties can access the live webcast of the conference call through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, www.wesbanco.com.  Participants can also listen to the conference call by dialing 888-347-6607, 855-669-9657 for Canadian callers, or 412-902-4290 for international callers, and asking to be joined into the WesBanco call.  Please log in or dial in at least 10 minutes prior to the start time to ensure a connection.

A replay of the conference call will be available by dialing 877-344-7529, 855-669-9658 for Canadian callers, or 412-317-0088 for international callers, and providing the access code of 10115497.  The replay will begin at approximately 5:00 p.m. ET on October 25, and end at 12 a.m. ET on November 6.  An archive of the webcast will be available for one year on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website (www.wesbanco.com).

Forward-Looking Statements

Forward-looking statements in this report relating to WesBanco's plans, strategies, objectives, expectations, intentions and adequacy of resources, are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  The information contained in this report should be read in conjunction with WesBanco's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and documents subsequently filed by WesBanco with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including WesBanco's Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31 and June 30, 2018, which are available at the SEC's website, www.sec.gov or at WesBanco's website, www.wesbanco.com.  Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements, which are not historical fact, involve risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in WesBanco's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC under "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A.  Such statements are subject to important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such statements, including, without limitation, that the businesses of WesBanco and FFKT may not be integrated successfully or such integration may take longer to accomplish than excepted; the expected cost savings and any revenue synergies from the merger of WesBanco and FFKT may not be fully realized within the expected timeframes; disruption from the merger of WesBanco and FFKT may make it more difficult to maintain relationships with clients, associates, or suppliers; the effects of changing regional and national economic conditions; changes in interest rates, spreads on earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities, and associated interest rate sensitivity; sources of liquidity available to WesBanco and its related subsidiary operations; potential future credit losses and the credit risk of commercial, real estate, and consumer loan customers and their borrowing activities; actions of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the SEC, the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, the Securities Investors Protection Corporation, and other regulatory bodies; potential legislative and federal and state regulatory actions and reform, including, without limitation, the impact of the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act; adverse decisions of federal and state courts; fraud, scams and schemes of third parties; internet hacking; competitive conditions in the financial services industry; rapidly changing technology affecting financial services; marketability of debt instruments and corresponding impact on fair value adjustments; and/or other external developments materially impacting WesBanco's operational and financial performance.  WesBanco does not assume any duty to update forward-looking statements.

About WesBanco, Inc.

Founded in 1870, WesBanco, Inc. (www.wesbanco.com) is a multi-state, bank holding company with total assets of approximately $12.6 billion (as of September 30, 2018).  WesBanco is a diversified and well-balanced financial services institution, with a community bank at its core, built upon a strong legacy of credit and risk management.  WesBanco has meaningful market share across its key geographies maintained by its commitment to dedicated customer service and solid fee-based businesses. It also provides wealth management services through a century-old trust and wealth management business, with approximately $4.7 billion of assets under management (as of September 30, 2018), and serves as registered investment advisor to a proprietary mutual fund family, the WesMark Funds.  WesBanco's banking subsidiary, WesBanco Bank, Inc., operates 209 financial centers in the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.  In addition, WesBanco operates an insurance agency, WesBanco Insurance Services, Inc., and a full service broker/dealer, WesBanco Securities, Inc.