Seacoast to sell Visa stock to cushion tax hit

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart more than offset a writedown of its deferred-tax asset by selling Visa shares.

The $5.3 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that it should record a $15.2 million gain in the fourth quarter after it sold 200,000 class B Visa shares. The company acquired the stock from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. a year ago.

Seacoast said it still has 11,300 shares of Visa stock.

The company also said it plans to record an $8 million to $9 million writedown of its deferred-tax asset due to recently passed tax reform, which should also lower its tax rate to 23.1% from 35.1%.

“We expect the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 will fuel long-term growth in Florida,” Dennis Hudson III, Seacoast’s chairman and CEO, said in the release.

“Seacoast intends to capitalize on this tremendous opportunity,” Hudson added. “The additional financial resources provided by the tax cut enable Seacoast to make appropriate additional investments to further accelerate our earnings momentum.”

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