Cortland Bancorp Posts Net Income of $1 Million

CORTLAND, Ohio – Cortland Bancorp, holding company of Cortland Bank, Wednesday reported first-quarter net income of $1 million, or 23 cents per diluted share.

This compares to fourth-quarter net income of $1.14 million, or 26 cents a share, and first-quarter 2016 income of $1.36 million or 31 cents a share.

Cortland also announced its board declared a cash dividend of eight cents per share payable June 1 to shareholders of record May 10.

Said the president and CEO, James Gasior, in a prepared statement: “Following the most profitable year we’ve delivered since 2003, first-quarter results were solid. Throughout 2016, we continued to implement our strategic initiatives of expanding into adjacent markets. We invested in key personal to support Cortland Private Bank and commercial lending operations into other northeastern Ohio markets, as well as expand our presence in the Hudson market. These investments are in the early stages with an expected lag in corresponding revenue stream. Thus first-quarter results are affected by the higher-than-usual noninterest expense base. We are optimistic that our organic expansion will translate into loan and deposit growth and eventual improvement in earnings.”

Key performance ratios for the quarters ended March 31 and Dec. 31 and March 31, 2016:

• Return on average equity, 6.94%, 7.69%, 9.49%.
• Return on average assets, 0.63%, 0.73%, 0.92%.
• Net interest margin, 3.52%, 3.58%, 3.58%.
• Efficiency ratio, 76.63%, 73.13%, 71.13%.

Net interest income was $4.94 million compared to $5.00 million the previous quarter and $4.70 million the year-ago quarter.

Noninterest income (includes mortgage servicing fees, debit and credit card fees) was $891,000, down slightly from the $897,000 reported for the fourth quarter and $1.08 million the year-ago quarter.

Noninterest expense (includes salaries and employee benefits, rents, data processing, marketing and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. premiums) was $4.65 million compared to $4.49 million the preceding quarter and $4.48 million the quarter ended March 31, 2016.

Average assets were $632.31 million during the quarter compared to $625.83 million the fourth quarter and $593 million the year-ago quarter.

Net charge-offs on bad loans were only $13,000, of 0.01% of total loans, compared to $14,000, or 0.01% of total loans the year-ago quarter. Nonperforming loans as a percentage of total loans was 1.87%, down from 3.04% a year ago and below the 1.97% posted for the fourth quarter.

Average total loans were $407.68 million during the first quarter compared to $381.22 million the year-ago quarter and $390.50 million the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016.

“We had another strong quarter of loan production in what typically is a seasonally slow first quarter,” Gasior said.

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