Sterling Bancorp Q1 Profit Rises On Larger Loan Loss Reserve Draw; Earnings Beat

(RTTNews) - Sterling Bancorp, Inc. (SBT), the holding company of Sterling Bank and Trust, F.S.B., on Monday reported higher income for the first quarter owing to a larger drawdown from the allowances for loan losses. Earnings surpassed expectations.

Net Income for the period was $5.26 million or $0.10 per share, as compared to $2.3 million or $0.05 per share in the previous period.

On average, 3 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting the company to report earnings of $0.09 per share. Analysts typically exclude one-time items.

The increase in net income is mainly attributed to the larger provision for loan reserves. Provision for loan losses was a net credit of $4.3 million, as compared to a credit of $0.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

Net Interest Income decreased by 8 percent to $21.3 million, from $23.2 million in the first quarter of the previous period.

Net recoveries declined to $196 thousands in the current quarter, as compared to $221 thousands in the year-ago quarter.

Common Equity Tier 1 (CET 1) stood at 19.72 percent versus 24.08 percent at the end of December 2021 and 18.48 percent at the end of March 2021.

Gross Loans decreased to $2 billion, from $2.5 billion a year ago.

Total deposits also declined, to $2.2 billion, from $2.9 billion at the end of March 2021.

Total nonperforming loans declined to $44.2 million, from $62.7 million at the end of December 2021 and $83.6 million at the end of March 2021.

Total nonperforming loans as a percent of total loans declined to 2.36 percent, from 3.11 percent at the end of December 2021 and 3.40 percent at the end of March 2021.

Shares of Sterling Bancorp closed Friday's trading at $6.83, down $0.17 or 2.43 percent from the previous close.