Primis Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:FRST) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

But, but more so in the out years. I think the core community bank, I mean, is hard really to grow that beyond or to improve the profitability there, say beyond — say 1.10% or 1.15%. And so all these other items — all these other businesses are important. I think long-term we’re still sort of believing that we should be in the 1.25% to 1.35% range. Our goal in 2023 is just to be 1% on the bottom line.

Casey Whitman: Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks for all the color. I’ll let someone else jump on.

Operator: Your next question will come from the line if Christopher Marinac with Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead.

Christopher Marinac: Hey, Dennis. Hey, Matt. Thank you for hosting the call today. I’m just going to follow up on the last point about the pretax, pre-provision kind of run rate that you put out. That slide was very helpful. Do you think that that’s possible to be at a run rate by the end of 2023? I just want to get a little more background on timing and kind of what’s realistic. I think we follow what you’re trying to do. Just want to know kind of what the timing we should expect.

Matthew Switzer: I haven’t been trying to think about the ROA on a quarterly basis when we put that together, because that includes mortgage contribution, which is only going to be breakeven in the first quarter, but more meaningful contribution in second and third quarter and then you get the ramp for Panacea and Life Premium Finance over time. So, I have a perfect answer to your question there, Chris. We’re trying to think of it more on the full year.

Dennis Zember: I think probably if I had to — I don’t think we’d be — I mean, fourth quarter obviously is not the best quarter for mortgage. I mean, I think it’ll be accretive to the ROA in the fourth quarter, but I don’t think it’ll be meaningfully accretive to the ROA. I think if you look at the first half of the year, Chris, versus the second, I think we have a few things teed up. I mean, Panacea, like we said in the reports, looking at some loan sales and we’ve got a little bit of momentum there. I’d say the first half probably is closer to 90, and the second half is probably closer to 110, even with mortgage dipping a little in the fourth quarter, I still think second half of the year — probably 110 and maybe the fourth quarter like a 105, probably what I had to guess.

Matthew Switzer: So, again, slide seven is more than aspirational. It’s really kind of what you’re trying to do for this year and it’s just a question of when those — it all falls in place.

Dennis Zember: I wouldn’t — yeah, I wouldn’t call it 10% aspirational. Yeah. I mean, I think some of the stuff that we’re looking — I mean, no, there’s — I think there’s science behind all of this. I mean, the core bank improvements of 2.6, I don’t want to go into that. I know exactly where the 2.6 is and on the mortgage pretax of 4.9, I know how to get to that 4.9 with $700 million of production and I know how to get there with $1 billion of production. So, in Panacea, I know how much in loan sales we’ve got to have and how much we’ve got a portfolio. And so, I don’t think it’s aspirational. I think it’s — and I know you didn’t mean that word sort of in a negative sense. But I kind of go back to my comments at the end of my prepared comments is, I mean, this is what we’ve been working towards. This is really what we’ve been working towards. And — yeah.