Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Terence McEvoy: Hi. Thanks. Just one follow-up. When you think about your TCE ratio, are you using the 9.55%, which excluding the AOCI or the 7.29%. And I’m asking the question to better understand some of the capital deployment comments, specifically around buyback.

Chris Navratil: Yeah. Truthfully, I can answer first and then Brad can jump in. I think we look at both numbers, Terry. We’re very aware of both numbers. As we think about capital activity, we’re being cognizant of both of those figures and understanding how trying to assess the best utilization of our capital, be it repurchase, be it M&A, be it a security repositioning, for example, right? So a number of different potential capital usage we did leverage today that are meaningful into the future, and we’re thinking about both of those ratios as we’re assessing. Brad, you want to add to that?

Brad Elliott: Yeah. I would say exactly what Chris said, we look at both ratios and are very cognizant of both of those ratios and then we look at what we think the odds of deploying capital in the best form for shareholders. And so what moves the needle most from an earnings per share basis. Right now, there’s not a lot of dilution. So we really are looking at doing that. We’ve been holding capital back recently because we think there are some things that are — that we could deploy that capital in versus buybacks in the very near future. So we’ve been a little light on the buyback lately.

Terence McEvoy: Great. Thanks again.

Operator: Thank you. And this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.