Profits soared at Bank of the Ozarks in Little Rock, Ark., thanks primarily to its expanding loan portfolio.
The $11.4 billion-asset company reported first-quarter net income of $51.7 million, up nearly 30% from a year earlier. But its adjusted earnings per share of 56 cents beat analysts' estimates by less than a penny, according to Bloomberg. And its stock closed Tuesday at $41.26, down 1.6%.
Total loans and leases increased 46% to $9.27 billion. Though margins tightened, the company's bigger portfolio produced a 32% increase in net interest income to $112.5 million.
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An investment bank cautioned Bank of the Ozarks that its target, Bank of the Carolinas, was in talks with another suitor and "did not wish to jeopardize that transaction," a filing disclosed. The Arkansas acquirer pushed on and ended up walking away with the deal less than two months later.
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The $9.3 billion-asset Bank of the Ozarks said in a press release Monday that it will pay $402.5 million, or $25 a share, in stock for the $1.7 billion-asset C1 Financial.
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Bank of the Ozarks in Little Rock, Ark., is set to catapult over $10 billion in assets after agreeing to buy Community & Southern Holdings in Atlanta.
October 19
Acquisitions of
Cost cuts also helped the bottom line. Noninterest expenses fell 5%, to $47.7 million.
The higher net interest income and lower expenses helped offset a 31% drop in fee income, to $19.9 million. Noninterest income fell because of lower mortgage lending income, the absence of certain life-insurance-related income and gains on investment securities that had boosted the year-earlier quarter, and other factors; the blow was cushioned by a 15% increase in service charges on deposit accounts tied to the company's 43% increase in deposits to $9.6 billion.
Meanwhile, Bank of the Ozarks has other M&A deals pending. It agreed last fall to buy
