Northwest Bancshares, Inc. has announced its first quarter 2024 earnings and quarterly dividend. The company reported a net income of $29 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, representing a decrease of $5 million, or 13%, compared to the same quarter last year. The annualized returns on average shareholders’ equity and average assets for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, were 7.57% and 0.81% compared to 9.11% and 0.97% for the same quarter last year.
The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share, marking the 118th consecutive quarter in which the company has paid a cash dividend. Based on the market value of the company’s common stock as of March 31, 2024, this represents an annualized dividend yield of approximately 6.9%.
Northwest Bancshares, Inc. also announced its intentions to pursue a limited, strategic repositioning of the securities portfolio to optimize its balance sheet. The company plans to liquidate lower-yielding securities to generate additional future earnings, with an expected yield pickup of 375-400 basis points from the repositioning.
Quarterly balance sheet highlights showed that average loans receivable increased by 4.2% from the same quarter last year, while average investments declined by 10.6%. Average deposits and average borrowed funds also saw increases and decreases, respectively.
In terms of the income statement, interest income increased by 18.7% from the quarter ended March 31, 2023, while interest expense surged by 153.6%. Net interest income decreased by 8.2%, and the net interest margin decreased to 3.10% from the same quarter last year.
The provision for credit losses decreased by 31% from the quarter ended March 31, 2023, primarily driven by a decline in reserves for unfunded commitments in the current period based on the timing of origination and funding of commercial construction loans and lines of credit.
Noninterest income increased by 16.7% from the quarter ended March 31, 2023, primarily due to an increase in service charges and fees, gain on sale of SBA loans, and improvements in trust and other financial services income.
Noninterest expense increased by 2.9% from the quarter ended March 31, 2023, primarily driven by a rise in personnel expense, offset by a decrease in non-personnel expense related to a decline in merger, asset disposition, and restructuring expense.
The provision for income taxes decreased by 17% to $8.6 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, from $10.3 million for the same quarter last year.
Northwest Bancshares, Inc. is the bank holding company of Northwest Bank, operating 134 full-service branches and eight free-standing drive-through facilities in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Indiana. The market has reacted to these announcements by moving the company's shares 0.0% to a price of $11.13. If you want to know more, read the company's complete 8-K report here.
