Teleconferência de Resultados do 3T26 da Avidbank Holdings (AVBH): Crescimento de Empréstimos e Depósitos Principais se Fortalece

Destaques

• O lucro líquido atingiu US$ 10,2 milhões, enquanto o LPA diluído aumentou para US$ 0,94 ante US$ 0,71 no 2º trimestre de 2026. O retorno sobre o ativo médio melhorou para 1,42%, e o índice de eficiência permaneceu abaixo de 50%.
• A carteira de empréstimos cresceu aproximadamente US$ 58 milhões, ou 10% anualizados, durante o trimestre e registrou alta de 17% na comparação anual, liderada pelo crédito comercial e industrial (C&I), residencial multifamília e imobiliário comercial ocupado pelo proprietário.
• A receita líquida de juros aumentou US$ 2,0 milhões, atingindo US$ 28,7 milhões. A margem financeira líquida caiu 19 pontos-base na comparação sequencial para 4,07%, em grande parte porque saldos de caixa mais elevados reduziram a margem em cerca de 17 pontos-base.
• Excluindo um depósito temporário de cliente de aproximadamente US$ 270 milhões e depósitos intermediados (brokered), o Avidbank gerou cerca de US$ 76 milhões em crescimento de depósitos essenciais em toda a instituição.
• Os empréstimos inadimplentes subiram ligeiramente para 0,70% do total de empréstimos após um empréstimo imobiliário para terrenos de US$ 1,5 milhão ser classificado como não operacional (nonaccrual). As perdas líquidas com baixas (net charge-offs) foram essencialmente zero, e a administração não relatou deterioração generalizada do crédito.
• A administração espera que a originação de empréstimos no 4º trimestre permaneça sólida, mas a quitação elevada de empréstimos para construção é uma principal incerteza para o crescimento reportado da carteira.

Dados Financeiros Principais

Desempenho Operacional e dos Negócios

O crescimento dos empréstimos foi abrangente, com os setores comercial e industrial (C&I), residencial multifamília e imobiliário comercial ocupado pelo proprietário atuando como os principais impulsionadores. Os saldos de construção e terrenos continuaram caindo devido a quitações elevadas, compensando parte da originação em outras áreas do banco.

A administração afirmou que os pipelines de empréstimos permaneceram saudáveis ao entrar no 4º trimestre. No entanto, os novos compromissos de construção contratados são inicialmente financiados apenas de forma parcial, enquanto os empréstimos quitados eram totalmente financiados. Como resultado, a atividade de construção pode não se traduzir imediatamente em um crescimento comparável do balanço patrimonial.

O aumento dos depósitos reportado incluiu cerca de US$ 270 milhões de um cliente existente após a venda de parte dos seus negócios. A administração espera que esses recursos temporários saiam durante o 4º trimestre. Tendências de captação mais duradouras foram refletidas em aproximadamente US$ 76 milhões de crescimento em depósitos essenciais, após a exclusão de saldos temporários e intermediados.

O Avidbank encerrou o trimestre com 171 funcionários em tempo integral (FTE), em comparação com 162 no final do 2º trimestre e 151 no encerramento do ano anterior. As contratações recentes incluíram equipes com foco em empréstimos do programa SBA, atendimento a associações de moradores e depósitos especializados. A administração espera que essas iniciativas tenham um impacto mais significativo no balanço em 2027.

A empresa também emitiu US$ 30 milhões em novas dívidas subordinadas e resgatou uma emissão existente de US$ 22 milhões, fornecendo suporte adicional de capital para o crescimento orgânico.

Projeções da Administração

A administração espera que o balanço sensível a ativos do Avidbank se beneficie da elevação da taxa dos federal funds em setembro durante o 4º trimestre, já que o aumento ocorreu no final do trimestre, sem afetar materialmente os resultados do 3º trimestre.

Excluindo os depósitos temporários, a administração estimou a margem financeira líquida normalizada do 3º trimestre no patamar de pouco mais de 4,20% antes da alta da taxa em setembro. O custo dos depósitos continua competitivo, mas a empresa busca um beta cumulativo de depósitos abaixo de 50%, potencialmente próximo de 40%.

Para o 4º trimestre, espera-se que as despesas operacionais fiquem praticamente estáveis ou ligeiramente mais altas. Aumentos adicionais em salários e benefícios devem ser amplamente compensados por menores honorários advocatícios e despesas profissionais.

A administração espera que o 4º trimestre seja um período relativamente forte para a originação de empréstimos, com base nos pipelines atuais. O crescimento real da carteira dependerá fortemente do momento e do volume das quitações de empréstimos para construção.

A empresa busca manter seu índice de eficiência em torno ou abaixo de 50%. A administração afirmou que qualquer melhoria adicional provavelmente será gradual, à medida que o Avidbank continua investindo em pessoal e infraestrutura.

O Avidbank espera trabalhar para obter o status de credor preferencial em suas operações da SBA, potencialmente no 1º trimestre. A administração também indicou que a alíquota efetiva de imposto pode retornar para a faixa intermediária de 28% no próximo ano, após as receitas de BOLI isentas de impostos reduzirem a taxa de 2026.

Riscos e Pontos de Atenção

• Espera-se que aproximadamente US$ 270 milhões em depósitos temporários saiam durante o 4º trimestre, criando uma consideração de curto prazo para a captação e a gestão do balanço.
• Os custos de captação de depósitos permanecem competitivos e podem pressionar a margem financeira líquida, além dos benefícios de eventuais altas adicionais de juros.
• As elevadas quitações de empréstimos para construção podem limitar o crescimento reportado da carteira, apesar dos sólidos novos compromissos e pipelines.
• Os empréstimos inadimplentes aumentaram após a inclusão de um crédito para terrenos de US$ 1,5 milhão em status não operacional, embora a administração não tenha relatado deterioração generalizada do crédito.
• Taxas de juros mais altas são desafiadoras para os tomadores e podem eventualmente afetar a atividade. A administração declarou que seus clientes são, em geral, experientes e não possuem alta alavancagem, não havendo preocupações no momento quanto a um estresse generalizado na carteira.

Destaques da Sessão de Perguntas e Respostas dos Analistas

A administração estimou a taxa pontual ajustada de depósitos em aproximadamente 3,30% em 30 de setembro, excluindo depósitos temporários, em comparação com 3,07% no trimestre anterior. A empresa espera alguma pressão adicional nos custos de captação, mas busca manter o beta dos depósitos abaixo de 50%.

Os novos empréstimos foram originados a um rendimento médio essencial de aproximadamente 6,82%, excluindo tarifas. A administração afirmou que o desempenho futuro da margem dependerá principalmente dos custos de captação e da precificação de novas captações.

Os US$ 10 milhões restantes em depósitos intermediados estão previstos para vencer no 4º trimestre. O Avidbank decidirá então se voltará a usar captação intermediada com base nas condições de preço e nas necessidades de liquidez.

A administração espera que as contratações sejam modestas no restante do ano, embora permaneça aberta a adições oportunistas. O foco está se voltando para a geração de retornos a partir de banqueiros existentes e recentemente contratados, além do desenvolvimento da infraestrutura para 2027.

Transcrição Completa da Teleconferência de Resultados

Transcrição completa da teleconferência de resultados

Comentários da administração

Operator

Good morning. My name is Ben, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Avidbank Holdings, Inc. Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I'd like to introduce the presenters, Chairman and CEO, Mark Mordell; Chief Financial Officer, Pat Oakes; and Chief Operating Officer, Gina Peterson. You may begin your conference.

Gina Thoma-Peterson

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today for the Avidbank Holdings Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's call is being recorded and is available in the Investor Relations section of our website at avidbank.com, along with our earnings release and presentation materials.

Today's call contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. These statements are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. For a list of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, please refer to our earnings release under the heading Forward-Looking Statements as well as the disclosures contained within our SEC filings.

We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures alongside our discussion of GAAP results. We encourage you to review the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations provided in our earnings release.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mark Mordell.

Mark Mordell

Thank you, Gina, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We appreciate your continued interest and support in our company and our story. Overall, the third quarter was very strong for us. Profitability improved. We continue to grow loans, and our bankers generated meaningful core deposit growth across the franchise.

Net income increased to $10.2 million for the quarter. Return on average assets improved to 1.42%, and our efficiency ratio was below 50%. I think these results demonstrate the improvement in earnings power of our franchise and the benefit of the investments we have made in our people and business lines.

Turning to growth. Loans increased approximately $58 million for the quarter or 10% annualized and were up 17% over the past year. Growth was broad-based with contributions from C&I, multifamily and owner-occupied commercial real estate being the chief drivers. Our loan pipelines continue to be healthy into Q4 and hopefully into next year.

Our construction and land portfolio continues to decline because of the elevated payoffs, so the growth we generated across the rest of the bank was particularly encouraging. As mentioned earlier, our loan pipelines continue to be strong, and we do expect construction payoff to remain elevated here in the fourth quarter. We believe we're getting closer to the point where that headwind begins to moderate and becomes more normalized as it has over the last 15 years.

On deposits, reported increase included approximately a $270 million deposit from an existing client following the sale from a portion of their business. We knew from the beginning that these funds would be temporary, and we expect them to leave over the course of the fourth quarter.

More importantly, excluding that temporary inflated balance and brokered deposits, we generated approximately $76 million of core deposit growth. That growth came from relationships across the franchise and is a good indication of the progress our bankers are making on the funding side of the balance sheet.

Turning to credit. Nonperforming loans increased modestly to 70 basis points of total loans after we placed a $1.5 million land loan on nonaccrual. As I said many times before, we never take credit for granted. We continue to monitor the portfolio closely and actively manage the credits that require additional attention. At the same time, net charge-offs were essentially 0 during the quarter, and we are not seeing any broad-based deterioration -- credit deterioration across the portfolio.

We also strengthened our capital during the quarter by issuing the $30 million of new subordinated debt and redeeming our existing $22 million issuance. That provided additional support for continued organic growth while we're maintaining strong capital ratios.

Overall, I'm pleased with the quarter. We are generating better profitability, maintaining solid growth across diversified commercial banking platform and are continuing to invest in the franchise. There's always more work to do, particularly around the funding and the credits we are actively managing, but I believe we are well positioned to move into the fourth quarter.

With that, I'll end my remarks and turn the call over to Pat to walk through the quarter in more detail.

Patrick Oakes

Thanks, Mark. Good morning, everyone. For the third quarter, we recorded $0.94 per diluted share compared with $0.71 per diluted share in the second quarter. Net interest income increased $2 million to $28.7 million, benefiting from higher cash balance related to the increase in deposits, higher loan balances and a larger investment securities portfolio. The net interest margin was 4.07% in the third quarter, down 19 basis points from the second quarter.

We estimate that 17 basis points of the decline resulted from average interest-earning balance -- cash balances that were $205 million higher during the quarter, including the impact from the temporary deposits Mark mentioned earlier, along with the overall strong growth in deposit average balances. The September increase in the Fed funds rate occurred late in the quarter, so it only had a minimal impact on the third quarter margin.

Looking ahead, we anticipate that our asset-sensitive balance sheet will benefit from the rate increase in the fourth quarter. The cost of our interest-bearing deposits decreased 9 basis points to 2.97% in the quarter, primarily because of the impact of the temporary deposits. Excluding those deposits, the spot rate at September 30 increased to 3.13% from 3.07% at June 30, primarily due to the September increase in the Fed funds rate.

Noninterest income was $1.7 million compared with $3.1 million in the second quarter. The second quarter included approximately $1.3 million of tax-exempt BOLI death benefit proceeds. Noninterest expense was $15.1 million compared with $16.5 million in the second quarter. The prior quarter included a $2.6 million litigation settlement. Without that settlement, expenses increased $1.3 million, driven primarily by higher compensation expense and credit-related legal expenses and professional fees. We ended the quarter with 171 full-time equivalent employees compared with 162 at June 30 and 151 at year-end.

Turning to capital. At quarter end, our Tier 1 leverage ratio was 10.82%, and our total risk-based capital was 13.48%. Book value per share was $27.24, a 4% annualized increase from the second quarter despite the negative impact of higher unrealized losses as long-term interest rates increased. Book value per share has increased 9% since last September.

With that, Mark, I'll turn it back to you.

Mark Mordell

All right. Thank you, Pat. That kind of summarizes the quarter. Now I think we're ready to open up to questions, please.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question from the line of Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler.

Perguntas e respostas

Matthew Clark

Just to round out the margin discussion, Pat, I think you gave a spot margin, but do you have the spot rate on deposit at the end of September, maybe even an adjusted spot rate, assuming those balances, the $270 million leaves? And then what kind of beta are you trying to manage towards through the cycle here?

Patrick Oakes

Sure. So excluding all these temporary deposits, we estimate the spot rate at September 30 was around 3.30%, up from 3.07% last quarter. So about 6 basis points increase so far. And that was all driven by the September rate increase. Obviously, we'll see a little more pressure here going forward. But we think that we'll get to keep that beta. We're pretty optimistic below 50. How much below that, we'll have to see. Hopefully, quite a bit, but I don't think it will go above 50%, hopefully, closer to 40% somewhere.

Matthew Clark

Okay. And maybe -- sorry, I missed that earlier. And then just the adjusted margin in September, I know it's 17 basis points impact from the temporary balances. But I guess in the month of September, how does that adjusted margin look?

Patrick Oakes

With all this noise, I don't really want to give a September margin. That's kind of what we guided you to that 17 basis point increase. So if you put that on -- if you kind of normalize cash balances, right, that margin was probably down a little bit, a couple of basis points here from last quarter. So normalized margin probably is closer to the low 4.20s before the rate increase, obviously, from -- or the September rate increase.

Matthew Clark

Yes. Understood. Okay. And then just on expenses, the run rate here you expect going forward on operating expenses?

Patrick Oakes

We'll probably still see salary and benefits increase here, but I think that's going to be pretty much offset by some of these higher legal and professional fees as we saw in the quarter. So my best guess is flattish to maybe up slightly for the fourth quarter.

Operator

Your next question from the line of Gary Tenner with D.A. Davidson.

Gary Tenner

I wanted to just ask question on the loan front. Mark, you gave some color, obviously, on the construction book and this quarter's growth overall was good. I know historically, the fourth quarter has been a good quarter for C&I. As you look at the pipelines now and think about the fourth quarter, any reason to think that, that will not be kind of the typical outcome in the fourth quarter?

Mark Mordell

There's no reason to expect that Q4 shouldn't be a pretty strong quarter for us. It seems -- I don't like patterns all that much, but if you go back 5 or 6 years, it seems Q3, Q4 are always stronger and Q4 is typically the top quarter. So we feel good about what we're seeing in the pipeline and what we close for the remainder of the year.

Gary Tenner

Okay. Appreciate that. And then just a minor question on the brokered deposits, I think, down to about $10 million at the end of September. Pat, will those go to 0 in the fourth quarter? Or will any linger into 2027?

Patrick Oakes

Well, that $10 million will mature in the fourth quarter. And then we'll decide if we want to add some before year-end on how from a funding perspective, we feel like it's a good deal to do that as a funding tool. But existing stuff should all be gone, then we'll just make some decisions going forward, how we use it.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question, from the line of Andrew Terrell with Stephens.

Andrew Terrell

Pat or Mark, maybe just to start, can you just talk about some of the new hires you've made? It seemed like a really good quarter from a hiring standpoint. I'd be curious on just the HOA Group, SBA team. And then can you just give us maybe an update or refresh on kind of the hiring pipeline more broadly?

Mark Mordell

The hiring pipeline for the balance of the year is going to be pretty modest if we still always be opportunistic. But I think the focus in SBA right now is we've got a reasonable pipeline, but focus on becoming a preferred lender. So we expect that to happen realistically -- Q1 realistically. So I don't think we're going to sell any loans or anything of that nature. We're just getting our infrastructure underneath us and getting some -- getting these things processed taking a little bit longer because we're not a preferred lender at this point.

So I think the HOA guys -- HOA team is doing what they need to be doing, pretty focused. They'll make an impact on some balances this year, but it will be pretty modest. And next year is the expectation of really getting some traction. The specialty deposits folks that we have, the HOA, they've been pretty active. Again, they have goals for this year, but really getting the legs underneath them and getting some credibility in the marketplace and having '27 being the year that they are much more impactful and much more impactful on our balance sheet.

Other than that, the bankers that we've hired and certainly, we've -- as everyone is aware, we hired a new President. So we're really building on the team and focusing on the infrastructure for '27. I mean we've taken care of capital and taking care of facilities. We've taken care of our sub-debt. We uplisted. We got some currency to trade and it's about stacking up quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year in compounding earnings going forward. So we're pretty focused on the production that -- from our existing bankers as well as the new bankers.

Andrew Terrell

Great. I really appreciate it. And then just to ask on -- maybe more of a question on kind of longer-term expense growth. If I look at the efficiency ratio, I mean, the past -- this is the kind of second quarter in a row, sub-50%. You guys are holding the line and revenue growth obviously helps. But when we think about longer-term efficiency ratio, is mid- to high 40%, is that a reasonable bar just as you look out and you think about the expense growth investments you need to make? Or do you think it can go further below that? Or just any thoughts on longer-term efficiency?

Patrick Oakes

Well, I think we're really hoping we've set a bar below 50% at this point or around 50% to down, right? And it's not going to move down quickly, right? But I think the ultimate goal is to hopefully leverage, obviously, all the hiring that we're doing to grow revenue at a good pace to offset that expense growth. We're still going to add people and all that stuff. So hopefully, it does continue to move down, but I think it will be a slow incremental move down if it is.

Mark Mordell

Right, I would agree with that.

Operator

Your next question from the line of Andrew Liesch with StoneX Financial.

Andrew Liesch

Just a question, Pat, if you have it handy, what's the -- what new loan yields were coming on at during the quarter, maybe a blended average?

Patrick Oakes

Yes. So this is without fees, right? This is just the core loan yield. It's more like 6.82% or so, in the 6.80s.

Andrew Liesch

Got it. So maybe a little bit higher with some fees. So I think just then looking at the margin going forward, certainly, you'll get some benefit from the rate hike. But net-net, just given that you're pretty much in growth mode, do you think the margin maybe will trail off a little bit over time even with some rate hikes and still profitability gets better, but just like net-net, the margin might come lower?

Patrick Oakes

Right. So we'll benefit when the Fed increases rates, right? And then outside of that, you're asking what's going to happen with that? Boy, it's really depending -- loan yield, you can see what it's going to do, right? It will be flattish and move up when they increase rates. It's really dependent on deposit costs and how much you pay up. It's pretty competitive out there.

I'm hoping that, that gets better, but could there be pressure going forward potentially? Boy, it's really just hard because it's all on the funding side that really dictates that and the new deposit growth. I think I'm hoping with some of these new initiatives like the HOA and other things we're working on that we can drive down the deposit cost over time to take some of that pressure away. So I guess my long answer would be, I hope not. I hope we can keep it stable.

Operator

Your next question from the line of Tim Coffey with Brean Capital.

Timothy Coffey

Mark, looking into the pace of the rate hiking cycle here, how resilient do you think your customers and your markets are to higher rates? Is there a point where we see a certain number of rate hikes and at that point, things start to stall?

Mark Mordell

It's certainly possible depending on where they go. But I think most of the companies that we're banking here have been -- are pretty seasoned and aren't highly leveraged. So those rate hikes are painful for our clients for sure. But I don't -- we monitor it pretty closely. We do sensitivity tests and see where the thresholds may happen. But at this point, we're not concerned about that. I think companies have performed pretty well, and they got some margin there. So we feel pretty good about it.

Timothy Coffey

Great. And then Patrick, is the right tax rate somewhere between 27% and 28%?

Patrick Oakes

For this year, it's lower than it typically is because of the BOLI proceeds received in the second quarter, kind of drove that down for the year. And I think it will tick back up next year to the mid-28s.

Operator

With no further questions, I would like to turn the call back over to the presenters.

Mark Mordell

This is Mark. And one of the things that I did fail to maybe clarify a little bit when we talked about the loan growth. We have really solid pipelines across, including construction. But we do have those elevated payoffs in construction, which were significantly delayed from getting started. So I think the wildcard for actual loan growth of how much that's going to be is going to be what kind of payoffs actually materialize in Q4 here.

I think we're coming to the end of it, like I mentioned earlier, but that's probably the wildcard for Q4. They have been booking new commitments, but those of you that understand how construction works that we're trading 100% funded loans for 10% funded loans for the new ones that are coming on because it does take 18, 24 months to be fully drawn on. So just a little bit of caution, that's probably the wildcard because it's been 2 years of consistent payoffs, which is a good thing in construction, but it does impact our overall loan growth.

So with that, I'll close it up and say, again, thank you all for your interest in Avidbank. If you have any further questions that Pat or I can answer, please feel free to reach out, and I appreciate your interest. Have a great rest of your day.

Operator

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