First Bank reports Q3 EPS 32c, consensus 40c

Reports Q3 revenue $32.57M, consensus $31.55M. Patrick L. Ryan, President and CEO of First Bank (FRBA), reflected on the Bank’s performance, stating, “First Bank’s outstanding third quarter growth is an outcome of a well-executed long-term strategy. We have worked to build teams, products, and operating structures that promote quality growth over the long term, and the results are evident. Our teams added high-quality loans and deposits across all categories. We also continued to optimize the Bank’s efficiency as our efficiency ratio(iii) remained below 60% for the 21st consecutive quarter. We continued to enact strategies to enhance future profitability and complement our organic growth efforts including ongoing balance sheet restructuring through the sale of certain lower-yielding investment securities, and we opportunistically restructured our BOLI policies during the quarter, an initiative that will be accretive to future earnings. The current quarter highlighted our efforts to build our core community banking customer base while we expand our specialty banking teams and continued investment in technology to improve the customer experience.”