Trustco Bank (NASDAQ:TRST) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Wednesday. Read the complete transcript below.

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Summary

Trustco Bank reported strong financial performance for Q1 2026 with net income of $16.3 million, a 14.1% increase compared to the previous year.

The company emphasized its strategic focus on competitive pricing for time deposit products and a successful share buyback program, purchasing over 500,000 shares in Q1 2026.

Loan portfolio growth was highlighted, particularly in home equity lines and residential real estate, contributing to a record high loan portfolio.

Net interest income rose by 10.7% to $44.7 million, supported by margin expansion and stable deposit growth.

Management reaffirmed its commitment to disciplined capital deployment and maintaining competitive offerings despite rising competitive pressures on deposit pricing.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good day and welcome to the Trasco Bancorp Earnings Call and webcast. All participants are in listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing Star A followed by zero on your keypad. After today's presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question you may press star then 1. To withdraw your question you may press star and 2. Before proceeding, we would like to mention that this presentation may contain forward looking information about the Trustco Bank New York that is intended to be covered by the safe harbor for forward looking statements provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements due to various risks, uncertainties and other factors. More detailed information about these and other factors can be found in our press release that preceded this call and in the Risk Factors and Forward Looking Statements section of our Annual report on Form 10K as updated by our quarterly reports on Form 10Q. The forward looking statements made on this call are valid only as stated hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update this information to reflect events or developments after the date of this call, except as may be required by applicable law. During today's call we will discuss certain financial measures derived from our financial statements that are not determined in accordance with US gaap. A reconciliation of such non GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP figures are included in our earnings press release which is available under the Investor Relations tab of our [email protected] Please also note that today's event is being recorded. A replay of this call will be available for the 30 days and an audio webcast will be available for our one year as described in our earnings press release. At this time I would like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Robert J. McCormick, Chairman President CEO. Please go ahead.

Rob McCormick (Chairman, President, and CEO)

Morning everyone and thank you for joining the call. I'm Rob McCormick, the president of Trustco Bank. I'm joined today as usual by Mike Ozemik, our CFO who will go through the numbers and Kevin Curley, our Chief Banking Officer, who will talk about lending. We're pleased to report that 2026 is off to a great start with net income of over $16 million, improving margin positive return metrics, building momentum in our share buyback program. Net income improved in part because of strategic pricing of our time deposit products which had the effect of reducing our cost of funds. Also contributing to this growth was non interest income generated by our Wealth Management department which increased 9% quarter over quarter the most meaningful part of the story in a matter of significant shareholder interest is that the loan portfolio is as expected repricing as loans booked at lower rates over the past few years are replaced by higher earning loans. As the loan portfolio reaches another all time high this quarter, the positive effect of repricing is becoming more pronounced and is having a meaningful impact on our financials. The great results announced yesterday are further bolstered by our stock buyback program. As investors will recall, we repurchased a million shares during 2025 and have received authorization to buy another 2 million shares this year. In the first quarter of 2026 we purchased over 500,000 shares, putting us on pace to fully execute. We continue to believe that the best acquisition we can make is Trusco bank and we expect that share repurchases will remain the centerpiece of our capital deployment strategy. Each of these pieces of our company strategy over the quarter generated significant improvement in our return metrics, highlighting our profitability, efficiency and capital leverage. Year over year we saw return on average assets increased 10% to 1.02. Return on average equity grew 14% to 9.66. Our efficiency ratio was lower by 6% to 54%. Now Mike will get into the details. Mike thank you Robin.

Mike Ozemik (Chief Financial Officer)

Good morning everyone. I'll now review Trustco Bank's financial results for the first quarter 2016. As we noted in the press release, the company continued to see strong financial Results for the first quarter of 2026, marked by increases in both net income and net interest income of the bank during the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2025. This performance is underscored by rising net interest income, continued margin expansion and sustained loan and deposit growth across key portfolios. This resulted in first quarter net income of $16.3 million, an increase of 14.1% over the prior year quarter which yielded a return on average assets and average equity of 1.02% and 9.66%, respectively. Capital remains strong. Consolidated equity assets ratio was 10.31% for Q1 2026 compared to 10.85% in Q1 2025. Book value per share at 3-31-26 was $38.32, up 6% compared to $36.16 a year earlier. During the first quarter of 2026, TrustCo repurchased 522,000 shares of common stock, or 2.9% of TrustCo's outstanding common stock under its previously announced repurchase program. That allows the company to repurchase up to 2 million shares or 11.1% of Trusco common stock in 2026. We remain committed to returning value to shareholders through a disciplined share repurchase program which reflects our confidence in the long term strength of the franchise and our focus on capital optimization. Credit quality continues to be consistent as we saw non performing loans modestly increase to 21.5 million in Q1 2026 from 18.8 million in Q1 2025. Non performing loans to total loans increased to 41 basis points in Q1 2026 from 37 basis points in the first quarter. 25 non performing assets the total assets was 35 basis points up from 33 basis points in Q1 2025. Our continued focus on solid underwriting within our loan portfolio and conservative lending standards positions us to manage credit risk effectively in the current environment. Average loans for the first quarter of 2016 grew 3.1% or 158.9 million to 5.3 billion from Q1 2025 at all time high. Consequently, overall loan growth has continued to increase and leading the charge was the home equity lines of credit portfolio which increased 50.8 million or 12.3% in Q1 2026 over the same period in 25 and the residential real estate portfolio which increased 93.2 million or 2.1%. Average commercial loans also increased 17.1 million or 5.8%. This uptick continues to reflect a local very strong local economy and increased demand for debt. The first quarter 2016 provision for credit losses was $950,000. Retaining deposits has also been a key focus. As we begin 26 total deposits ended the quarter at $5.7 billion and was up $156 million compared to the prior year quarter. We believe the increase in these deposits compared to the Same period in 25 continues to indicate strong customer confidence in the bank's competitive deposit offerings. The bank's continued emphasis on relationship banking combined with competitive product offerings and digital capabilities has contributed to a stable deposit base that supports ongoing loan growth and expansion. Net interest income was $44.7 million for the first quarter of 2016, an increase of 4.3 million or 10.7% compared to the prior year quarter. The net interest margin for Q1 2025 was 2.84%, up 20 basis points from the prior year quarter. Yield on interest earning assets increased to 4.23%, up 10 basis points from the prior quarter and the Cost of interest bearing liability has decreased to 1.79% in Q1 2026 from 1.92% in Q1 2025. The bank is well positioned to continue delivering strong net interest income performance even as the Federal Reserve contemplates whether or not to make great changes in the months ahead. The bank remains committed to maintaining competitive deposit offerings while ensuring financial stability and continued support for our community's banking needs. Our wealth management division continues to be a significant recurring source of non interest income. It had approximately about 1.26 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2026. Non Interest Income attributable to wealth management and financial services fees represent 44.1% of non interest income. The majority of this fee income is recurring supported by long term advisory relationships A growing base of managed assets now on to non interest expense Total non interest expense net of ore expense came in at $26.9 million up 631,000 from the prior year quarter. Ore expense net came in at an expense of $50,000 for the quarter as compared to 28,000 in the prior year quarter. We're going to continue to hold the anticipated level of expense not to exceed $250,000 per quarter. All the other categories of non interest expense were in line with our expectations for the first quarter. We would expect 2026's total recurring non interest expense net of OE expense to be in the range of 26.7 to $27.3 million. Now Kevin will review the loan portfolio and non performing loans.

Kevin Curley (Chief Banking Officer)

Thanks Mike and good morning to everyone. Our average loans grew by 158.9 million or 3.1% year over year. This is an improvement over last quarter's report of year over year growth of 126.8 million. The growth was centered in our residential loan portfolio with our first mortgage segment growing by 93.2 million or 2.1% and our home equity loans growing 50.8 million or 12.3% over last year. In addition, our commercial loans grew by 17.1 million or 5.8% over last year for the first quarter. Actual loans increased by 37.7 million compared to the fourth quarter. Purchased mortgage loans including refinances and home equity loans grew by 35.3 million and commercial loans were up by 3.3 million for the quarter. Our mortgage origination activity showed solid improvement during the quarter and year over year. Purchase loan volume was steady throughout the quarter. Refinance activity picked up earlier in the period with lower rates then eased as market rates moved higher during the second half of the quarter. In all of our markets, rates were lower in the beginning of the quarter, decreased closer to 6.75%, have recently receded to 6% to 6 and a quarter percent range. We continue to offer highly competitive mortgage rates with our 30 year fixed rate at 5.99%. In addition, our home equity products continue to offer customers lower cost alternatives to other forms of credit. Overall, we are positive about our loan growth in the quarter and remain focused on driving stronger results moving forward. Now onto asset quality. As a portfolio lender, we originate loans to hold for the full term, reinforcing our disciplined underwriting standards. Asset quality at the bank remains very strong. Our early stage delinquencies for our portfolio continue remain stable. Charge offs for the quarter amounts to a net recovery of $39,000, which follows a net recovery of $14,000 in the fourth quarter and a total of $238,000 in recoveries over the past year. Non Performing loans were 21.5 million at this quarter end, 20.7 million last quarter and 18.8 million a year ago. Nonperforming loans to Total loans was 0.41% at this quarter end compared to 0.39% last quarter and 0.37% a year ago. Nonperforming assets were 22.8 million at quarter end versus 22.1 million last quarter and 20.9 million a year ago. At quarter end, our allowance for credit losses remained solid at $53 million with a coverage ratio of 247% compared to 52.2 million with a coverage ratio of 253% at year end and 50.6 million with a covered ratio of 270 a year ago.

Rob McCormick (Chairman, President, and CEO)

Rob, that's our story. We're happy to answer any questions you may have.

OPERATOR

We'll now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, press Star then two. And our first question comes from the line of Ian Lapy with Gable Funds. Ian, please go ahead.

Ian Lapy (Equity Analyst at Gable Funds)

Hi, good morning, Rob and team. Great morning again. Good morning. Thank you. Yeah, congratulations. Just a couple. So the provision more than tripled compared to a year ago despite, you know, really solid metrics in terms of your portfolio. And you mentioned stable early stage delinquencies. So are you still, you mentioned in the release a more cautious economic outlook. Are you still using the baseline Moody's forecast or are you doing something else?

Mike Ozemik (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, no. So we are still using the baseline Moody's forecast. And I mean, what's really driving that increase in the provision? I mean, about half of it is due to loan growth and about half of it is due to that forward looking component of the Moody's forecast that does have some of the economic factors, you know, looking slightly negative on the go forward. So that's what drives that calculation.

Ian Lapy (Equity Analyst at Gable Funds)

Okay. And then the release mentions competitive pressure on deposit pricing. Can you just talk about is anything new, any new entrants or anything changing there? And what's your. It seems like you're doing quite well.

Rob McCormick (Chairman, President, and CEO)

I don't think there's anything new, Ian, but it's the same old, same old. You know, a lot of the consumers are pushing for obviously higher CD rates, I think more than I've ever real, never seen before in my career anyway. Consumers have a magic number in their mind that they're pushing for. And you also have the natural competitors from the credit unions that we compete against, so that they're tough competitors from a rate perspective. They don't have the same motivation and same issues that I. That we have. So that nothing really new, just those two popping up.

Ian Lapy (Equity Analyst at Gable Funds)

Okay. And then lastly on capital, what was the tier one common equity ratio? And as you continue to repurchase shares where, what's your comfort level in terms of where you'd like to see that, where you'd be comfortable with that settling out? I know it was 18.4% at year end.

Rob McCormick (Chairman, President, and CEO)

Yeah, the share repurchase, we're taking it kind of one bite at a time and slower. Mike can comment on this if he wants, but we're taking it as we possibly can. We are fully committed and believe in the share repurchase, but we're certainly not going to jeopardize our capital position or our liquidity position to repurchase shares. We've always been known, you know, the scene, the way we run the place. We've always been known as well, capitalized and very liquid by all measures. And we certainly wouldn't want to do anything to disrupt that.

Ian Lapy (Equity Analyst at Gable Funds)

Okay, good. And then do you have the CET1 ratio? I know it'll be in the queue. We haven't disclosed yet. But I mean, it is trending. It's trending down the same way that the leverage ratio is trending now. So we're putting that capital to work. Okay. Okay, great. And congrats again. Thanks.

OPERATOR

Thanks, Ian. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Robert McCormick for any closing remarks.

Rob McCormick (Chairman, President, and CEO)

Thank you for your interest in our company, and have a great day.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.