Farmers Banc Corp. Reports Net Income of $4.8 Million

CANFIELD, Ohio – Farmers National Banc Corp. reports net income for the quarter ended March 31 of $4.798 million, or 18 cents a share.

This compares to fourth-quarter net income of $3.175 million, or 12 cents a share, and year-ago first-quarter net income of $2.211 million, or 12 cents a share.

Farmers is the parent of Farmers National Bank and Farmers Trust Co. It is scheduled to hold its annual meeting at 3:30 p.m. today in St. Michael Church.

Since the quarter ended March 31, 2015, Farmers has completed the acquisition of First National Bank of Orrville and 1st National Community Bank in East Liverpool. Those acquisitions added $676 million in assets.

In a prepared statement, the president and CEO of the holding company and the bank, Kevin J. Helmick, said, “We continue to be encouraged by our organic loan growth, which has increased 22% during the past 12 months, and improvements in our level of noninterest income.”

Among the items Farmers cited in its earnings report:

  • Net loans stood at $1.306 billion at March 31, up from $1.288 billion at year-end and $666.06 million reported the year-ago quarter. They grew organically 22% over the 12 months.
  • Loan quality remains solid, the ratio of nonperforming assets to total assets at 0.55%. Early-stage delinquencies remain low at $10.07 million, or 0.74% of total loans. Net charge-offs rose slightly during the quarter, $368,000, compared to $296,000 the last quarter of 2015.
  • Lending to the energy sector is “insignificant,” less than 1% of the loan portfolio.
  • Noninterest income, mostly fees from the trust company and commissions from the insurance subsidiary, increased 22.5% to $4.95 million from the year-ago quarter of $4.04 million but was below the $5.18 million reported for the quarter ended Dec. 31.

Key performance ratios for the quarters ended March 31 and Dec. 31 and March 31, 2015:

  • Return on average assets (annualized), 1.03%, 0.68%, 0.79%.
  • Return on average equity (annualized), 9.41%, 6.51%, 7.14%.
  • Net interest margin (annualized), 4.07%, 3.99%, 3.64%.
  • Efficiency ratio, 62.65%, 73.07%. 70.71%.

Noninterest expense (includes salaries and benefits, rents, data processing, acquisition and integration, marketing, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. premiums) was $14.44 million, of which $289,000 was acquisition-related. This compares to $16.62 million the previous quarter, of which $1.74 million was related to acquisitions, and $9.97 million the year-ago quarter when $245,000 was related to acquisition.

Salaries and employee benefits fell to $7.55 million for the quarter from $8.22 million the previous quarter.

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