풀턴 파이낸셜(FULT) 2026년 3분기 실적발표 콘퍼런스콜: 사상 최대 영업이익 및 가이던스 상향

핵심 요약

• 풀턴 파이낸셜(Fulton Financial)은 2026년 3분기 보통주 주주 귀속 순이익이 1억 1,410만 달러(희석주당순이익 0.59달러)를 기록했다고 발표했습니다. 영업이익은 1억 1,980만 달러(희석주당 0.62달러)로 사상 최고치를 달성하며 전 분기(1억 1,590만 달러, 0.60달러) 대비 증가했습니다.
• 순이자이익은 전 분기 대비 2% 증가한 2억 9,000만 달러를 기록했습니다. 순이자마진(NIM)은 3.58%로 전 분기의 3.60% 대비 하락했는데, 이는 매수회계 상각액 감소와 평균 현금 잔액 증가를 반영한 결과입니다.
• 총예금은 5억 7,100만 달러 증가한 288억 달러를 기록했습니다. 10억 달러에 가까운 고객 예금 증가에 힘입어 풀턴은 알선예금(brokered deposits)을 4억 2,800만 달러 줄이고 연방홈론은행(FHLB) 대출금 5억 5,300만 달러를 전액 상환할 수 있었습니다.
• 대출은 4,400만 달러 증가했습니다. 소매 대출 잔액은 1억 700만 달러 늘어난 반면, 기업 대출은 상업용 건축 대출 잔액 감소와 상업용 부동산 대출의 조기 상환 증가 여파로 6,300만 달러 감소했습니다.
• 건전성 지표는 개선되었습니다. 평균 대출 대비 순상각률은 0.34%에서 0.14%로 떨어졌으며, 총자산 대비 부실자산 비율은 0.54%에서 0.52%로 하락했습니다.
• 경영진은 순이자이익 가이던스의 하단을 11억 2,500만 달러로 올리고 비이자이익 가이던스 범위를 2억 9,500만 달러~3억 5,000만 달러로 조정하는 등 2026년 영업 가이던스 일부를 상향 조정했습니다.

주요 재무 데이터

매수회계 상각액은 총 1,290만 달러로, 리퍼블릭(Republic) 인수 830만 달러와 블루 파운드리(Blue Foundry) 인수 460만 달러로 구성되었습니다. 이는 2분기의 1,510만 달러를 하회하는 수준입니다. 평균 현금 잔액은 8억 4,200만 달러에서 약 11억 달러로 증가하여 순이자마진을 약 2베이시스포인트(bp) 감소시켰습니다.

사업 및 영업 실적

고객 예금 유입은 재무상태표 확장의 주요 동력이었습니다. 경영진은 성장분 중 약 6억 달러는 기업금융 부문에서, 약 4억 달러는 지방자치단체 자금의 계절적 유입에서 비롯되었다고 설명했습니다. 수당예금 및 저축성예금은 8억 7,900만 달러 증가했으며, 이 중 저축성예금이 6억 100만 달러, 이자부 수당예금이 3억 2,400만 달러를 차지했습니다.

알선예금(brokered deposits)이 5억 4,700만 달러로 감소하면서 조달 여건이 개선되었습니다. 또한 풀턴은 이번 분기 동안 연방홈론은행(FHLB) 대출금을 전액 상환했습니다.

신규 대출 취급액은 전 분기 대비 23% 증가했으나, 상업용 부동산 대출의 조기 상환이 가속화되면서 대출 잔액 성장이 제한되었습니다. 경영진은 보험사와 비은행 대출기관의 경쟁적인 금리 및 조건 제시를 이유로 들며, 다가구 주택 대출을 조기 상환 증가의 주요 원인으로 꼽았습니다. 신규 대출 취급 수익률은 6%대 초반이었으며, 포트폴리오 구성상 소매 대출 수익률이 기업 대출 수익률을 소폭 상회했습니다.

자산관리 부문의 운용 및 관리 자산(AUMA)은 사상 최대인 186억 달러를 기록했습니다. 자산관리 매출은 신규 자산관리사 채용, 고객 증가, 자산 유입 및 호의적인 시장 환경에 힘입어 전 분기 대비 9% 이상 증가했습니다. 자산관리와 기업·소매·주택담보대출 수수료 사업의 합산 매출은 2분기 대비 4%(연환산 16%) 성장했습니다.

풀턴은 올해 들어 30명의 뱅커를 새로 영입해 기업금융 영업 인력을 14% 확충했으며, 이 중 3분의 2 이상이 3분기에 이루어졌습니다. 경영진은 이번 인력 채용과 자금관리(Treasury Management) 기능 강화, 임베디드 금융 역량이 2027년의 보다 빠른 성장을 뒷받침하기 위한 목적이라고 말했습니다.

회사는 3분기 중 주당 평균 24.14달러에 5,610만 달러 규모의 보통주를 매입했습니다. 올해 들어 현재까지 주당 평균 22.58달러에 410만 주를 자사주로 매입했으며, 기존 자사주 매입 한도 중 약 5,800만 달러가 남아있습니다.

경영진 가이던스

경영진은 순이자마진(NIM)이 안정적이거나 소폭 상승세를 유지할 것으로 예상하고 있습니다. 초과 유동성 압박은 완화될 것으로 보이며, 연방준비제도(Fed)의 추가 금리 인상과 현재의 수익률 곡선 형태가 순이자이익과 순이자마진을 지지할 수 있다고 덧붙였습니다. 다만 최종 결과는 예금 베타(금리 민감도)에 따라 달라질 수 있습니다.

2027년의 경우 경영진은 최근의 기업금융 뱅커 채용과 구조적 자금 이탈 및 만기 감소에 힘입어 자체 대출 성장률(organic loan growth)을 중단기 기준 중한자리수(mid-single-digit) 수준으로 목표하고 있습니다. 이는 실제 실현될 성장률에 대한 전망치가 아니라 경영진의 목표치입니다.

리스크 및 주의 깊게 살펴볼 항목

• 기업 대출 잔액은 상업용 부동산 조기 상환 가속화로 인해 성장에 제약을 받았습니다. 특히 다가구 주택 부문에서 가격 산정 및 신용 조건의 경쟁이 여전히 치열하게 이어지고 있습니다.
• 풀턴의 지방자치단체 예금 중 약 70%는 금리 연동형으로, 연방준비제도(Fed)의 금리 인상 이후 비용이 비교적 빠르게 조정되며 대출 금리 재산정보다 먼저 반영될 가능성이 있습니다.
• 9월 말 기준 예금 금리(spot deposit cost)는 1.90%였으며, 분기 평균 전체 예금 금리는 1.87%였습니다. 신규 기업 예금 성장의 금리는 2%대 중후반 수준에서 책정되었습니다.
• 유형보통주자본(TCE) 비율은 9월 30일 기준 약 3억 7,000만 달러의 기타포괄손익누계액 영향을 받았습니다.
• 자산관리 부문은 호조세를 보인 시장의 수혜를 입었습니다. 다만 경영진은 이러한 시장의 훈풍이 역전될 수도 있음을 인정했습니다.

애널리스트 Q&A 주요 내용

경영진은 자체 대출 성장과 기타 자본 수요가 증가함에 따라 자사주 매입 규모가 3분기 수준보다 둔화될 것으로 예상하고 있습니다. 자본 배분의 우선순위는 자체 성장, 포트폴리오 또는 은행 인수를 포함한 기업 이니셔티브, 그리고 자사주 매입 순으로 유지됩니다.

은행 M&A와 관련해 풀턴은 영업 지역 내 빈자리를 채울 수 있는 자산 10억 달러~50억 달러 규모의 금융기관에 계속 집중하고 있습니다. 경영진은 블루 파운드리(Blue Foundry) 인수 통합 작업과 관련 비용 절감이 당초 예상보다 빠르게 진행되고 있다고 밝혔습니다.

풀턴은 중기적으로 유가증권 비중이 1~1.5%포인트 상승할 수 있으며, 향후 수년에 걸쳐 전체 자산의 약 17%를 목표로 하고 있다고 밝혔습니다. 월간 유가증권 현금 흐름은 기존 약 6,000만 달러~6,500만 달러에서 5,000만 달러 안팎으로 둔화되었으나, 단기 유가증권의 재투자 수익률은 5%를 훨씬 상회하는 수준이라고 설명했습니다.

실적 발표 콘퍼런스 콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fulton Financial Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Pat Lafferty, Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

Patrick Lafferty

Good morning, and thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the third quarter ending September 30, 2026. Your host for today's conference call is Curt Myers, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. Joining Curt is Rick Kraemer, Chief Financial Officer.

Our comments today will refer to the financial information and related slide presentation included with our earnings announcement, which we released yesterday afternoon. These documents can be found on our website at fult.com by clicking on Investor Relations and then on News. These slides can also be found on the Events and Presentations page under Investor Relations on our website. Today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements. These statements represent our expectations about the future and are subject to risk and uncertainty. Our actual results may differ materially from these statements. Please refer to our earnings release and related slide presentation under the heading Forward-Looking Statements for a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ.

In discussing Fulton's performance, representatives of Fulton may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the supplemental financial information included with Fulton's earnings announcement released yesterday and Slides 26 through 33 of today's presentation for a reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures.

Now I would like to turn the call over to your host, Curt Myers.

Curtis Myers

Well, thanks, Pat, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I'll share a few details on our third quarter performance and provide some observations on current business trends. Then Rick will review our financial results in more detail and discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2026. After our prepared remarks, we'd be happy to take any questions you may have.

The third quarter represented another period of strong performance for Fulton. Throughout the quarter, we supported our current customers, added new customers, executed on our strategy and delivered value for shareholders. This all resulted in record financial results. Our strategy is centered around 4 priorities: grow the company, deliver effectively for customers, operate with excellence and serve all of our stakeholders. We believe these priorities provide a disciplined framework for operating the company, and we continue to perform across each of these priority areas during the quarter. In support of our growth objectives, we continued investing in talent and capabilities across our businesses.

Year-to-date, we increased our commercial sales force by 14% with over 2/3 of that growth occurring during the third quarter. These hires included experienced bankers, business development professionals who are helping expand customer relationships, complementing our strategic acquisitions in Northern New Jersey and Philadelphia. These actions, combined with ongoing investments in commercial banking capabilities, including treasury management enhancements and embedded banking solutions are helping us win new customer relationships. This is most evident this quarter in our commercial deposit growth as we added new customers at an accelerated pace, and we grew commercial deposits materially.

Additionally, our process improvements are helping our teams serve customers more effectively and driving meaningful efficiency gains. We've expanded the use of Salesforce AI-enabled capabilities across the organization, powered by Coworker. Our adoption has been so effective that our progress was recognized by Salesforce at Dreamforce, where Fulton was highlighted for its innovation and partnership. These investments and enhanced usage are helping improve productivity, customer engagement and support our long-term efficiency objectives. Collectively, these efforts contributed to another quarter of strong performance. Profitability reached a record high. Operating net income available to common shareholders increased to $119.8 million or $0.62 per diluted share. Operating PPNR increased to $156 million. Operating return on average tangible common equity improved to 15.94%, and operating return on average assets increased to 1.4%.

Additionally, our efficiency ratio improved to 56.8%, reflecting our continued focus on disciplined expense management. Our balance sheet also further improved during the quarter. Customer deposits grew by approximately $1 billion, reflecting both new customer acquisition and growth within existing relationships. This further improved our funding profile as we reduced broker deposits and other wholesale funding. We believe this is a significant strength for the company as our diversified customer deposit base continues to provide stability and support long-term balance sheet growth.

While loan growth was modest during the quarter, underlying business activity remains solid. Customer engagement was high and pipelines continue to show good momentum. Total loan originations increased 23% from the prior quarter, reflecting healthy production levels. As we look forward to 2027, we believe several of the headwinds to loan growth should abate. This, coupled with increased production from the significant investments we are making in our people, capabilities and market presence should accelerate growth. Our diversified business model continues to be a meaningful competitive advantage. Wealth management assets under management and administration reached a record $18.6 billion and wealth management revenue grew more than 9% linked quarter.

Commercial, consumer and mortgage banking fees also increased from the prior quarter, highlighting broad-based growth across our fee businesses. As a result, noninterest income remained a meaningful contributor to overall performance, representing approximately 21% of total revenue. Our capital position remained strong during the quarter. We repurchased $56.1 million of common stock, returning capital to shareholders while still maintaining capital levels that provide flexibility to support customer needs, invest in the business and pursue strategic opportunities. Tangible common equity ended the quarter at 8.4%, primarily reflecting the impact of AOCI, while our CET1 capital ratio remained stable at 12.2%. Credit quality remained favorable during the quarter, demonstrating the strength of our underwriting and risk management practices. Asset quality metrics improved, reserve levels remain solid, and we continue to view the overall credit environment as stable.

Looking ahead, we are optimistic about the opportunities in front of us. Our diverse business mix, loyal customer base, solid balance sheet and experienced team provide a strong foundation for continued success. Overall, we are pleased with our third quarter performance, and we believe the company is well positioned.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick to review our third quarter financial results in more detail.

Richard Kraemer

Thank you, Curt, and good morning, everyone. Fulton delivered another quarter of solid financial performance, highlighted by continued earnings growth, healthy deposit generation, favorable credit results and momentum across our fee-based businesses. For the third quarter, net income available to common shareholders was approximately $114.1 million or $0.59 per diluted share. Operating earnings were $119.8 million or $0.62 per diluted share compared to $115.9 million or $0.60 per diluted share in the second quarter.

The improvement in operating performance was driven primarily by higher net interest income and noninterest income and lower provision expense. Net interest income increased $5.8 million or approximately 2% linked quarter to $290 million. Total purchase accounting accretion income was $12.9 million, consisting of $8.3 million related to the Republic acquisition and $4.6 million related to the Blue Foundry acquisition. This compares with $15.1 million in the prior quarter. Our net interest margin was 3.58% compared to 3.6% in the second quarter. Margin reflected lower purchase accounting accretion and the impact of carrying higher average cash balances during the quarter, which reduced margin by approximately 2 basis points. Average cash balances were approximately $1.1 billion compared to $842 million in the second quarter.

Ending loans were relatively consistent during the quarter. Total loans grew by $44 million. Consumer-related portfolios grew $107 million, while commercial balances declined by $63 million, driven primarily by declining levels of commercial construction. Deposits totaled $28.8 billion at quarter end, an increase of $571 million compared to June 30. Growth was driven by strong customer deposit inflows across our commercial and public funds businesses. Demand and savings deposits increased $879 million during the quarter, including growth of $601 million in savings deposits and $324 million in interest-bearing demand deposits. As customer deposit balances increased almost $1 billion during the quarter, we continue to optimize the funding profile of the balance sheet. Broker deposits declined by $428 million during the quarter, ending at $547 million, while Federal Home Loan Bank advances were reduced by $553 million and fully paid off during the quarter.

Noninterest income totaled $77.2 million during the quarter. While total noninterest income declined modestly from the second quarter, the prior quarter included approximately $6.9 million of income recognized from an equity method investment that was sold in the prior quarter. Wealth Management delivered another strong quarter with revenue increasing $2.1 million linked quarter. Our commercial, consumer and mortgage banking businesses continued to generate consistent growth. When combined with wealth, these 4 businesses grew at a 4% rate linked quarter or 16% annualized. Operating noninterest expense was $211.2 million compared to $210.6 million in the prior quarter.

Items excluded from operating results included $5.6 million of intangible amortization and $1.7 million of acquisition-related expenses. Salaries and employee benefits increased during the quarter by approximately $5.6 million, primarily driven by higher incentive accruals, recruiting expense and 1 additional day in the third quarter. Overall, operating expenses remain within our expected range and Blue Foundry targeted cost saves remain favorable to original estimates.

We continue to invest in talent across the franchise to support future growth while maintaining disciplined expense management. Credit quality remained sound during the quarter with asset quality metrics improving linked quarter. Net charge-offs were 0.14% of average loans compared to 0.34% in the prior quarter, while nonperforming assets improved to 0.52% of total assets from 0.54%. The allowance for credit losses was 1.45% of loans compared to 1.48% last quarter. Provision expense totaled $4.1 million, down from $4.9 million in the second quarter.

Overall, portfolio performance remained stable, and our reserve position continues to provide solid coverage against inherent credit risk. Our capital remains a significant source of strength. Common equity Tier 1 capital was 12.2%, while total risk-based capital was 16%. Our tangible common equity ratio was 8.4%, which was impacted by changes in accumulated other comprehensive income. AOCI totaled approximately $370 million at September 30.

During the quarter, we repurchased approximately $56.1 million of common stock at an average price of $24.14, continuing our commitment to returning capital to shareholders while maintaining financial flexibility. On a year-to-date basis, we have repurchased 4.1 million shares at an average price of $22.58 per share. We have approximately $58 million remaining under our current share repurchase authorization. Our capital position remains strong and supports future growth opportunities, shareholder returns and balance sheet flexibility. With 1 quarter remaining in the year, we are making the following updates to our 2026 operating guidance.

Net interest income. We are raising the lower end of our range for NII by $5 million to $1.125 billion. We are lowering our range for loan loss provision to $30 million to $40 million. We are raising our noninterest income range to $295 million to $305 million. We are raising the lower end of our range for operating noninterest expense to $820 million. There are no changes to our outlook for full year tax rate.

And with that, I'll turn the call back to Curt.

Curtis Myers

Thank you, Rick. The third quarter was another successful quarter for Fulton. We generated record financial results, maintained strong credit quality and continued to return capital to shareholders. As we look ahead, we remain focused on serving customers, supporting our communities and executing against our strategic priorities. We believe these investments we are making today position us well for future growth and long-term value creation.

Operator, we'll now be happy to take questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James.

질의응답

Timothy DeLacey

This is Tim DeLacey on for Daniel this morning. Maybe just starting off on deposits. It was pretty good customer deposit growth this quarter. I know that some of that reflects some of the normal seasonal rebound in municipal deposits, but you also kind of alluded to some of the commercial wins. Just curious if you can help us put a finer point on how much of the growth was impacted from those seasonal flows and whether you'd expect some of the solid underlying momentum in the commercial deposits to continue.

Curtis Myers

Yes. I appreciate that question. We had a really good quarter. So some of that is seasonal municipal inflows and it was supplemented then by really good core relational transactional deposit wins within commercial banking. So our treasury management platforms are solid. We're winning new customers. We really feel good about the wins to date. If you look at our business as we've really ramped up commercial bankers, treasury bankers, we're building a lot of momentum growing customers and you really saw that in the quarter.

So overall, just commercial growth was almost $600 million, muni flows are about $400 million. So that's kind of the split between that. So you can see it's a really healthy split of just core transactional relational business that we're adding.

Timothy DeLacey

Okay. I appreciate that, Curt. And maybe just on the buyback, a lot more active this quarter. I know that you talked about a step-up in loan growth going here. Is this kind of a fair pace that we should expect on the buyback front? Or could we see a step down as the loan growth is expected to ramp up here?

Curtis Myers

Yes. So in the quarter, it certainly accelerated relative to the first and second quarter. We do have a fair amount of buyback remaining. It's really a strategic decision for us within the quarter based on what we see from a capital utilization standpoint. So as growth and capital accelerate, you would probably see that moderate to more historical levels. But we think that there's opportunity there within the quarter, and we've been pretty active, but we would probably expect that to moderate linked quarter.

Operator

Our next question comes from Casey Haire with Autonomous.

Casey Haire

I wanted to touch on the loan growth. So it sounds like -- so production up 23%. So pretty good there. It obviously didn't come through in the third quarter here. Can you give some color as to what the paydowns and payoffs were in the third quarter and where you expect that? It sounds like it's going to moderate, but what sort of -- how much can that -- what kind of line of sight do you have on that moderating? Like what level will that be going forward?

Curtis Myers

Yes. We appreciate the question specifically on loans. Consumer loans met expectations were consistent net balance growth, I feel good about those businesses. To your point, commercial balances trailed expectations, mostly due to accelerated CRE payoffs above what we thought they were going to be in the quarter. And then specifically within that, it's really multifamily. If you look linked quarter and year-over-year, multifamily payoffs were higher than we expected. And that market is competitive. So we're seeing rates and terms relative to when we originated those loans 5 or 10 years ago, just being more competitive, there's more players competing in that market as insurance companies, nonbanks are in multifamily.

So that was most of the story linked quarter. So those are our customers. So we're keeping the customer, but in some cases, losing those assets as we make choices around pricing and credit.

Casey Haire

Okay. And then just switching to sort of the funding costs, deposit costs and long-term NIM. Can we get an update as to what you guys are thinking in terms of cumulative interest-bearing deposit beta through this Fed hike cycle and the spot deposit costs at 9/30, if we've got that.

Richard Kraemer

Sure. Yes, Casey, spot deposit costs were 190 in September. I would say from a beta perspective, I'll answer a couple of different ways. But if we look back at the last rate hike cycle, over the cycle, we had just under 40% betas. I will say that was probably a more unique cycle given the starting point. And those betas didn't really do a whole lot for the first, call it, 18 months of that hike cycle. So it caught up really more towards the tail end. All that said, we do model historical betas into our forecast.

Casey Haire

Okay. Great. And so that's 40% on a total basis. And the 190, that's for September, right? That's not 9/30?

Richard Kraemer

Yes, that was September. But a couple of things just to point out, right? We do have -- we have obviously a pretty substantial municipal portfolio. About 70% of that is indexed. So those deposits, the costs on those move more immediate, obviously, following the September Fed hike. So that gets reflected into that portion of the portfolio a little bit sooner and certainly faster than it shows up on the loan side. So just keep that in mind as you roll those deposit costs forward.

Operator

Our next question comes from David Konrad with KBW.

David Konrad

I wanted to talk a little bit about the -- maybe the star of the quarter, wealth management. I think it was up high single digits quarter-over-quarter. So -- and I wouldn't think this would be a seasonally strong quarter. So maybe the strength that you had outlined the success there? And maybe what's the medium-term growth rate you expect in this business?

Curtis Myers

Yes. I mean the business performed well, and the business has been performing well. I mean we've had really consistent growth and performance in the wealth business overall. What's driving that business really across the board, we're adding new advisers. We're winning new customers. We're winning more assets with existing customers. And then when that's coupled with some momentum and consistency in the market, those things really have a tailwind and benefit. If you look at Page 21 on the investor deck, I mean, I think something to highlight there is just the diversification and kind of full service of that business as we look at mass affluent institutional and high net worth, like we're winning kind of in each of those categories. And we're a bank of choice for talent. And so we've been adding talent in each of those categories as well.

So we think that's sustainable, certainly has the tailwind of a good market right now. That could go against you. But the core business of more wealth advisers, more customers and winning assets for customers is just really solid.

Operator

Our next question comes from Matthew Breese with Stephens.

Matthew Breese

You talked about this a little bit. I was hoping for a little bit more specificity on recent hires across your footprint. I'd be curious in North Jersey in particular, just how many teams and how that sets you up for growth next year? You teased it a little bit. But to the extent you hired folks, does this improve the growth outlook from low single digits to mid-single digits?

Curtis Myers

Yes. I think we see growth accelerating. I mean a couple of things on adding talent. So as I just mentioned in wealth, the same is true in commercial banking. We're a bank of choice for really high-caliber bankers. And as we make opportunities available to join our team, we've been really impressed with the caliber of folks and the amount of folks that want to join the team. So you look year-over-year, we're up -- we mentioned there, 14% in the overall team. That's 30 bankers.

And you look at the production that 30 new kind of high-caliber bankers can add to our existing team that really gives us confidence to be even at a bigger balance sheet now compared to the last couple of years. We feel that gives us the origination momentum to grow certainly in that mid-single digit in all things being equal to maybe even accelerating. So we feel good about the momentum there.

Matthew Breese

And then, Rick, securities were up a little bit this quarter. Just curious if there's a good level of securities assets you'd kind of point us to? And then could you help me out on upcoming kind of cash flows for securities? There's still a pretty wide delta between average yields on the average balance sheet versus new stuff. I'm curious to what extent you closed that gap?

Richard Kraemer

Yes. Thanks, Matt. I would say more of a medium-term target, securities assets probably 1 point to 1.5 points higher, so call it, targeting around 17%, that's probably over the next couple of years, right? So -- and in terms of cash flow, cash flow slowed a little bit during the quarter. I think they dropped from around previous quarter around 60, 65 a month down to around 50 a month. So some of that is obviously going to be level dependent. But obviously, we're reinvesting even on shorter duration securities right now into -- well into the 5s.

Matthew Breese

Okay. And then just last one. Given rate hikes, potential for more rate hikes, shape of the curve, I would think that all bodes well for the NIM. Maybe help us out with kind of direction and the extent we might see NIM expansion in the next handful of quarters.

Richard Kraemer

Yes, I appreciate it. I think the -- look, the NIM has a stable to slightly higher trend to it. This quarter, as we alluded to, had some -- there was a lot of excess liquidity that did have a little bit of drag on margin in the short term. We carried a lot of that excess and wholesale liquidity through quarter end. So that will abate some of that pressure in near-term quarters. But certainly, if the Fed continues on a rate hike cycle and the curve stays at this shape. Yes, there's a tailwind to NII and to NIM. But I would expect it to moderate somewhat dependent on, obviously, what deposit betas are. But directionally, feel good about it here.

Operator

Our next question comes from Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler.

Grant Zirlin

This is Grant Zirlin on for Manuel. Thanks for the earlier color on the pace of the buyback. I was just wondering if you could provide some more specifics into capital deployment priorities and maybe a particular focus on what you would consider in bank M&A?

Curtis Myers

Yes. Thanks for that question. Our priorities remain the same, supporting organic growth, then corporate initiatives, whether that's portfolios or banks, different corporate initiatives and then finally, buyback. So we look at each of those buckets. We look at the forecast for that. We look at stock trading price and really make adjustments between those 3 categories. So as we see organic growth accelerate, we want to deploy capital that way.

On M&A, the last part of your question, that strategy is the same as well. We're focused on that $1 billion to $5 billion bank. We've done a pretty good job, we feel, on 2 acquisitions over the last couple of years on banks in that category that really add to and fill in our footprint. We're really happy with North Jersey and the Blue Foundry acquisition, that acquisition integration, pro forma is ahead of expectations. And we now are a much more major player in that market. Like that's the kinds of things that we want to do as we look forward, and that strategy remains the same.

Grant Zirlin

Appreciate the color. And then switching over to loan growth. Could you just discuss a little more on the outlook into next year and what could drive an acceleration of trends here?

Curtis Myers

Yes. As we mentioned, we're really building for '27 at this point. We've added commercial bankers. We have some just structural runoff and maturities abating if you look year-over-year. So the things that we've done throughout this year, we feel really position us for '27 to have that strategic long-term organic growth target in the mid-single digits as a base. And if we can accelerate beyond that, that's what we really like to do.

Operator

Our next question comes from Emily Graves with Hovde Group.

Emily Graves

I'm in for Dave Bishop today. So super quick question on the loan conversation. Do you have a new loan origination yield? And then can you provide some color on how the rate increases are affecting specific sectors of your loan portfolio?

Richard Kraemer

Yes. Emily, just real quick on the loan yields. New originations were, I'll call it, in the low 6s overall, consumer originations a little bit higher than commercial on the mix. And in terms of production of new, I think maybe just pointing to what Curt alluded to earlier, there's been some compression on certain pockets, a lot in commercial real estate, and even more specific on multifamily. So that's been an area where we've probably shown more discipline as of late, but that would be the one I would point to.

Operator

Our next question comes from Chris Adamo with Brean Capital.

Christopher Adamo

This is Chris Adamo on for Chris Marinac here. One quick question for you guys following back on, I think, an earlier question on deposits. Could you just provide, I guess, an average deposit rate for the quarter for, I guess, what would be on-ramp client or small business clients? What are you guys seeing on that front?

Richard Kraemer

Yes. Well, I mean, yes, average overall, that 187. But for -- if I look at commercial segmentation in that, call it, mid- to upper 2s is where we're seeing some of that new deposit growth.

Operator

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Curt Myers for closing remarks.

Curtis Myers

Well, great. And thank you again for joining us today. We hope you will be able to be with us when we discuss the fourth quarter results in January '27. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.