UCFC Reports 2018 Net Income Rises to $37M

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – United Community Financial Corp., holding company of Home Savings Bank, reports net income of $9.55 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, or 19 cents per diluted share, and full-year net income of $37.17 million, or 74 cents per diluted share, compared to $21.8 million in 2017 or 43.7 cents per share.

Fourth-quarter net income compares to $7.56 million the third quarter, or 15 cents per diluted share, and fourth-quarter 2017 income of $4.50 million, or nine cents per diluted share. Net income for 2017 was $21.80 million, or 43 cents per diluted share.

UCFC directors declared a cash dividend of seven cents per share, payable Feb. 15 to shareholders of record Feb. 4. Furthermore, the directors have authorized an increase to the company’s existing share repurchase program for an additional one million shares. The company had remaining 873,000 shares authorized for repurchase as of Dec. 31, 2018.

In a prepared statement, the president and CEO of UCFC and Home Savings, Gary M. Small, said, “Full year 2018 performance reflects strengths on many fronts. Loan growth up 8.9%, average customer deposit growth up 8.3%, net interest income up 9.4%, and net interest margin was managed well throughout a very challenging year. Generally, our fee businesses performed well. While the residential mortgage business continues to be very competitive, our origination activity improved 10% year over year. Loan portfolios are strong with very favorable non-performing loan and delinquency metrics.”

Key ratios for the quarters ended Dec. 31, Sept. 30 and Dec. 31, 2017:

• Return on average assets, 1.36%, 1.37%, 0.68%.
• Return on average equity, 12.15%, 12.25%, 6.09%.
• Net interest margin, 3.58%, 3.33%, 3.43%.
• Efficiency ratio, 54.79%, 57.30%, 63.73%.

Total interest income was $30.17 million for the quarter compared to $27.69 million the preceding quarter and $24.85 million the year-ago quarter.

Noninterest income, which includes insurance agency income, service fees and charges, mortgage servicing rights, deposit-related fees,  was $5.58 million, down from $6.14 million the third quarter and from $6.46 million the last quarter of 2017.

Noninterest expense such as salaries and employee benefits, data processing, occupancy and rents, advertising and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. premiums was $17.17 million, up from $15.77 million the third quarter and $17.33 million the fourth quarter of 2017.

Deposits rose from last year with total deposits reaching $2.213 billion at Dec. 31, down from $2.352 billion at Sept. 30, but up from $1.957 billion at Dec. 31, 2017.

Total loans reached $2.268 billion at Dec. 31, up from $2.244 billion at Sept. 30 and $2.083 billion at Dec. 31, 2017.

Total assets grew 6.1% to $2.811 billion the fourth quarter from $2.649 billion the year-ago quarter.

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