Pacific Premier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPBI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Steve Gardner: I think you are right as far as we are approaching or it appears we are approaching an inflection point in the loan portfolio, at least the contraction that we have seen here over the last year plus period of time or at least it could be, because prepayment certainly slowed subsequently in the third quarter. I suspect that’s some lenders pulling back. Generally speaking, demand is pretty muted right now, and I would say, we are not seeing a lot of strong opportunities to lend at the rates that make sense to us. I think you — as we underwrite credits and look at opportunities, it’s predominantly on the business side, where some businesses have very strong cash flows and see opportunities to expand their business and that makes sense. And then, it’s generally, as I said, pretty muted in other areas and so we will see how this dynamic plays out in the coming months and as we move into 2024.

David Feaster: Okay. And last one for me, just touching on capital. Look, you have got an incredibly strong balance sheet. You have positioned the bank extremely well for a broader economic slowdown and a difficult operating environment. But look, we don’t have a ton of need for capital for loan growth, you are continuing to grow capital and now shares are trading below tangible book value at this point. I am just curious how you think about your capital priorities at this point or is there any appetite for share repurchases given where the stock is or is capital preservation still paramount?

Steve Gardner: Generally speaking, capital preservation is certainly one of the primary considerations for the Board. We continue to look at optimizing our capital levels, and certainly, we have an approved stock buyback, but we have not been active for some period of time, something that we are regularly considering and looking at the Board level and that is the way that we will approach it in the coming quarters.

David Feaster: Okay. Appreciate everybody. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Matthew Clark: Yeah. Good morning. Thank you. Just along the lines of that capital related question, what’s your appetite to restructure the securities portfolio given how much capital you have at this point?

Steve Gardner: Yeah. We have talked about it before, Matthew, that it’s something that we have looked at, at various points, we continue to consider it and I think as the environment moves away from, call it, the disruptions that we saw earlier this year in March, April and May, that approach may become more attractive. So we will continue to assess that opportunity and how we are thinking about it, because as you point out, we do have certainly very strong capital levels today.

Matthew Clark: Okay. Great. And then as to the margin, can you give us a sense for the timing of the runoff in the brokered CDs this quarter? I am trying to get a sense for whether or not you saw that benefit fully in 3Q and then remind us how much you have coming due in 4Q and then with the $200 million runoff of FHLB, October 6, it looks like that could benefit the NIM by about 5 basis points. What I am trying to get at is, when you run through the numbers and you consider the spot rate on your deposits being pretty tight to the quarterly average and it looks like your NIM could actually be up a little bit here in 4Q?

Steve Gardner: We — the $490 million of broker deposits that we paid off was mainly matured towards the end of the quarter in September. Most of the broker deposits that we have $500 million, well, roughly about $600 million this quarter, most all of those mature towards the end of the quarter. And depending upon our cash levels, deposit flows, loan activity, we will look to pay down or potentially pay those off towards the end of the quarter.

Matthew Clark: Okay. And then maybe for Ron, the amount of the hedging gain, how much does that benefit NII this quarter in dollars…