Southside Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBSI) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brady Gailey: So high single-digit loan growth, what about deposit growth? I mean, I know, first quarter was a unique quarter. But do you think that you could see deposit growth? Is there more downside to deposits? How are you all thinking about that? I know your loan deposit ratio is fairly low at about 71%. So you definitely have room there. But how are you thinking about deposits.

Lee Gibson: My personal opinion is I think deposit growth is going to be challenging. We do anticipate – I mean, we don’t anticipate. We are expecting in the second quarter the one of the public fund depositories that we have under contract is going to be receiving bond proceeds of about $173 million. So we will receive those deposits during the quarter. But in terms of deposits, net of public funds and net of brokered deposits, I think remaining static is going to be a win right now based on the competition for deposits out there. Unless we’re just willing to pay even more than what we’re paying now in terms of deposit betas. So I wouldn’t – I’m not looking for substantial growth. And really I’m kind of looking at making sure that we’re able to retain the deposits that we currently have.

Brady Gailey: All right. And then your Southside remains pretty active in the share repurchase program. Is there any way we’ve seen other companies that have paused the buyback for now? I know you guys have a very safe balance sheet and plenty of capital. But should we expect the buyback to continue to be active? I know it has been so far in April, but should we expect that to continue into the future?

Lee Gibson: Julie, how many shares do we have left?

Julie Shamburger: I think we got 600 left.

Lee Gibson: Julie is checking on the number of shares. I think it’s safe to say that based on where the price of the shares are, that we have about – as Julie said, we have around 400,000 shares left that we could purchase. I don’t anticipate any changes in what we’re doing. Now whether we’ll authorize additional repurchase after that, I’m not ready to opine on that.

Brady Gailey: And that 400,000 that’s left in the authorization, is that as of the end of March or does that incorporate the shares that have been repurchased so far in April?

Lee Gibson: That incorporates the shares that have been repurchased so far in April.

Brady Gailey: Okay. All right. Great. Thank you for the color.

Lee Gibson: All right. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question or comment comes from the line of Mr. Matt Olney from Stephens. Mr. Olney, your line is now open.

Matt Olney: Good morning. Just looking for some additional commentary around…

Lee Gibson: Good morning, Matt.

Matt Olney: Good morning. On some of the loan growth, just what you’re seeing as far as some of the average yields that you’re putting on the balance sheet?

Lee Gibson: Yes. Julie, stated that the average yield in the first quarter was 697. So I would assume with the slight debt increases, we’ve seen that likely will be right around 7%, maybe somewhere between 7% and 7.25% in the second quarter.

Matt Olney: Okay. And then, I didn’t see in the press release and maybe I just missed it. Do you have what the unrealized position is or the AOCI position as of March 31?

Lee Gibson: Yes. Julie is grabbing that.