South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Steve Crockett: Yeah. So it should be the fixed that matures 12 months or less and then also the variable immediately repricable and those that can reprice within 12 months or less. So there should be the 8%, I think it’s — the 6%. It’s not just maturity and repricing.

Curtis Griffith: But they just, they reprice on a schedule and many of them are actually on one year schedules and some others that are coming up on a lot of banks did. We certainly have a fair amount of stuff that was put on the books with a, not maybe a 10 year maturity, but a five year fix on the rate and we’re starting to hit some of those dates out there on those five years. So we’ll certainly take that opportunity to reprice and besides what we’re saying there, we are going to have our, scrub our loan portfolio constantly and as opportunities arise due to whatever situation that might trigger it in a loan agreement, we’re not going to be bashful about seeking higher rates on those loans as well. So that might be coming in a little bit in addition to even the 30%. It’s not a big number, I would expect, but it’s certainly meaningful.

Brett Rabatin: Okay. And then wanted to make sure I understood the kind of the verbiage around capital uses from here. It sounds like you guys are getting a little more interested in possible M&A scenarios if it made sense. But it also sounds like you’re still committed to maybe continuing the share of purchase and so just wanted to make sure I understood how you were thinking about both of those two things as you allocate capital here in the coming quarters.

Curtis Griffith: Well, what we’re trying to say carefully out there is that while we’re not getting terribly excited about the M&A, we are beginning to get some inquiries about it. So I think it’s still a challenging market to do anything in, but we’ll stay aware of opportunities in our markets and see what comes along, but I think our board is still looking at having probably some sort of repurchase program in place. Don’t know what it’s going to look like. We’ll be talking about that real soon and revamping a little bit. As you can tell, we’ve been really pretty aggressive in this past quarter, perhaps even a little more than we thought we might, given the way pricing and everything worked out, but I still think it’s a good idea to have a repurchase program in place out there.

I don’t know what the market’s going to do. Nobody does. But we’ve seen some fairly dramatic swings just in the last few days and our board’s position has been pretty clear that we’ve kind of got some metrics in there on where we think our stock’s really a good buy and we get down to those levels, then it’s highly likely we’d be looking at buying some more. So I think you might see a little adjustment in that buyback program from what we’ve been doing, but will we still have one in place? I think it’s probable that we will.

Brett Rabatin: Okay. That’s helpful. More dialogue on M&A, but not necessarily because you’re getting more interested per se.

Curtis Griffith: I think that’s fair. We obviously need to stay aware of what’s happening and as you well know, we’ve certainly seen multiple acquisitions happen in some of our home markets out here and some of those haven’t gone particularly well. And I would say we certainly don’t want to replicate that situation, but the right deal may walk through the door, and we’d really want to do it. But we’re going to be very cautious about it and certainly have some metrics that we would feel like we can defend very clearly to the market on what we decide to do.

Brett Rabatin: Okay.

Steve Crockett: But I think the other thing is, when it gets down to the M&A side of it, what’s really interesting is the fact that our phone’s ringing more so than anything than it has in the past.

Brett Rabatin: Okay. That’s helpful. And if I could sneak in one last one. I’m just curious. Your indirect auto portfolio is almost all prime and super prime, but I’m curious if you’ve seen anything on the consumer side that maybe would indicate that the consumer’s starting to show some signs of weakness or slowing down spending. Anything that you’re seeing that would point to a slowing consumer?

Brent Bates: No, this is Brent. We’re really not, not at least at this stage. Our delinquencies are in check, still below pre-pandemic, and same with the repo, still well below pre-pandemic level. So not really seeing any chinks there at this time. We’ve got, as you pointed out, a heavy weight toward higher credit score consumers. So that may be a part of that.

Cory Newsom: And I think one thing, this is Cory. I think one thing to keep in mind, if you look at our indirect portfolio, it kind of comes with more necessities as opposed to toys and so we’ve been very careful in making sure that we don’t have, we’ve not done much in the way of financing the things that people can want to walk away from.

Brett Rabatin: Okay. That’s helpful. Thanks for all the additional color on CRE too.

Operator: Our next question comes from Brady Gailey with KBW. Please state your question.

Brady Gailey: Thank you. Good afternoon, guys. So I know we had the partial bond restructuring last quarter. I think you put those proceeds to use in loans. So that’s a big, big pickup in yield. Are you contemplating doing any additional bond restructuring where you sell bonds at loss and then transition it into a higher earning asset over time?

Steve Crockett: Yeah, this is Steve. We look at it. There’s nothing specific strategy that we’re going to say we’re definitely going to do one, but definitely want to look at it and see if it makes sense. Obviously, with all the volatility in the bond market in the last several weeks and month, it’s been a little bit more challenging than maybe it was at the beginning of the third quarter. But I think it’s always good for us to at least see what it looks like and try to evaluate any of the merits of doing it.

Curtis Griffith: This is Curtis. I would say I’m very pleased with our timing for what we did, given the additional change in the longer end of the curve. So like Steve said, we watch it all the time. And never say never, but right now it’s a little hard to figure out that really just taking that additional income loss out there to try to reposition it, but there may be a point in there where it really starts to make some sense. We watch it all the time.