NewtekOne reports Q4 EPS 6c, consensus 63c

Barry Sloane, CEO, said, "Our future of becoming the market leader as an owner of a technology-enabled bank is not only within our grasp, it has begun, with the rollout of the first version of the Newtek Advantage(R) as well as our rebranding strategy and our redesigned website www.Newtekone.com. Our mobile account opening and online banking capability is now functional and clients can open a commercial and/or consumer deposit accounts in a frictionless manner by going to www.newtekbank.com. Our bank has already begun to open new bank accounts, take deposits and to fund loan originations. We project our balance sheet and earnings in 2023 and 2024 with optimism based on our 22 years of experience as a publicly traded company, in addition to our historical growth of revenues, earnings, and client footprint. We are updating our EPS projections to a range of $1.70 to $2.00 per share in 2023 and to a range of $2.80 to $3.20 per share in 2024. Given our market leadership in various segments of our business, we feel comfortable with these forecasts. In addition, today NewtekOne’s board of directors declared our first dividend as a financial holding company of $0.18 per share payable on April 14, 2023 to shareholders of record on April 4, 2023, which is above our previously forecasted guidance of $0.16 per share. We believe that our strong balance sheet and forward-thinking business strategy and plan has energized the entire Company and client base."