City Holding Company (“Company” or “City”) (NASDAQ:CHCO), a $6.3 billion bank holding company headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia, today announced quarterly net income of $29.1 million and diluted earnings of $1.96 per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. For the second quarter of 2024, the Company achieved a return on assets of 1.85% and a return on tangible equity of 22.2%.

Net Interest Income

The Company’s net interest income increased approximately $0.2 million, or 0.4%, from $54.4 million during the first quarter of 2024 to $54.6 million during the second quarter of 2024. The Company’s tax equivalent net interest income increased $0.2 million, or 0.4%, from $54.6 million for the first quarter of 2024 to $54.8 million for the second quarter of 2024. Due to an increase in average investment balances ($99.9 million) and an increase in the yield on investments (26 basis points), net interest income increased $1.0 million and $0.9 million respectively. Additionally, an increase in the average balance of deposits in depository institutions ($23.9 million) increased net interest income by $0.3 million and an increase in the yield on loans (2 basis points) increased net interest income by $0.2 million. These increases were largely offset by an increase in the cost of interest bearing liabilities (16 basis points) and an increase in the average balance of interest bearing liabilities ($118.6 million) which lowered net interest income by $1.5 million and $0.8 million respectively. The Company’s reported net interest margin decreased from 3.95% for the first quarter of 2024 to 3.87% for the second quarter of 2024.

Credit Quality

The Company’s ratio of nonperforming assets to total loans and other real estate owned decreased from 0.28%, or $11.5 million, at March 31, 2024 to 0.25%, or $10.2 million, at June 30, 2024. Total past due loans increased from $6.7 million, or 0.16% of total loans outstanding, at March 31, 2024, to $10.9 million, or 0.26% of total loans outstanding at June 30, 2024.

As a result of the Company’s quarterly analysis of the adequacy of the allowance for credit losses, the Company recorded a provision for credit losses of $0.5 million in the second quarter of 2024, compared to a provision for credit losses of $0.4 million for the comparable period in 2023, and a recovery of credit losses of $0.2 million for the first quarter of 2024. The provision for credit losses in the second quarter was primarily due to an increase in the loss rate for residential real estate loans.

Non-interest Income

Non-interest income was $18.9 million during the quarter ended June 30, 2024, as compared to $20.3 million during the quarter ended June 30, 2023. During the second quarter of 2024, the Company reported $0.4 million of unrealized fair value gains on the Company’s equity securities as compared to $0.3 million of unrealized fair value losses on the Company’s equity securities during the second quarter of 2023.

Exclusive of these items, non-interest income decreased $2.0 million, or 9.9%, from $20.6 million for the second quarter of 2023 to $18.6 million for the second quarter of 2024. This decrease was largely attributable to a decrease of $2.4 million in bank owned life insurance due to lower death benefit proceeds. This decrease was partially offset by an increase of $0.4 million, or 18.1%, in trust and investment management fee income.

Non-interest Expenses

Non-interest expenses increased $2.0 million, or 5.8%, from $34.8 million in the second quarter of 2023 to $36.8 million in the second quarter of 2024. This increase was largely due to an increase in other expenses of $0.9 million and bankcard expenses of $0.6 million. In addition, salaries and employee benefits increased $0.3 million, and equipment and software related expenses increased $0.2 million.

Balance Sheet Trends

Loans increased $21.1 million (0.5%) from March 31, 2024 to $4.11 billion at June 30, 2024. Residential real estate loans increased $10.5 million (0.6%), home equity loans increased $8.3 million (4.9%), and commercial real estate loans increased $2.7 million (0.2%).

Period-end deposit balances increased $11.5 million from March 31, 2024, to June 30, 2024. Total average depository balances increased $101.7 million, or 2.1%, from the quarter ended March 31, 2024 to the quarter ended June 30, 2024. Average time deposits increased $52.0 million, average interest-bearing demand deposits increased $36.5 million, and average noninterest bearing deposits increased $19.1 million. These increases were partially offset by a decrease of $5.9 million in average savings deposits.

Income Tax Expense

The Company’s effective income tax rate for the second quarter of 2024 was 19.7% compared to 20.1% for the year ended December 31, 2023, and 19.4%, for the quarter ended June 30, 2023.

Capitalization and Liquidity

The Company’s gross loan to deposit ratio was 81.2% and its gross loan to asset ratio was 64.9% at June 30, 2024. The Company maintained investment securities totaling 23.5% of assets as of the same date. The Company’s deposit mix is weighted heavily toward checking and saving accounts, which fund 61.8% of assets at June 30, 2024. Time deposits fund 18.1% of assets at June 30, 2024, with only 13.9% of time deposits having balances of more than $250,000, reflecting the core retail orientation of the Company.

City Holding Company is the parent company of City National Bank of West Virginia (“City National”). City National has borrowing facilities with the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank that can be accessed as necessary to fund operations and to provide contingency funding. These borrowing facilities are collateralized by various loans held on City National’s balance sheet. As of June 30, 2024, City National had the capacity to borrow an additional $1.6 billion from these existing borrowing facilities. In addition, approximately $710 million of City National’s investment securities were pledged to collateralize customer repurchase agreements and various deposit accounts, leaving approximately $780 million of City National’s investment securities unpledged at June 30, 2024.

The Company continues to be strongly capitalized with tangible equity of $526 million at June 30, 2024. The Company’s tangible equity ratio decreased slightly from 8.6% at December 31, 2023 to 8.5% at June 30, 2024. At June 30, 2024, City National’s Leverage Ratio was 9.7%, its Common Equity Tier I ratio was 15.2%, its Tier I Capital ratio was 15.2%, and its Total Risk-Based Capital ratio was 15.7%. These regulatory capital ratios are significantly above levels required to be considered “well capitalized,” which is the highest possible regulatory designation.

On May 29, 2024, the Board of Directors of the Company approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.715 per share payable July 31, 2024, to shareholders of record as of July 15, 2024. During the quarter ended June 30, 2024, the Company repurchased 142,000 common shares at a weighted average price of $100.24 per share as part of a one million share repurchase plan authorized by the Board of Directors in January 2024. As of June 30, 2024, the Company could repurchase 821,000 additional shares under the current program.

City National operates 97 branches across West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Ohio.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that are included pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements express only management’s beliefs regarding future results or events and are subject to inherent uncertainty, risks, and changes in circumstances, many of which are outside of management’s control. Uncertainty, risks, changes in circumstances and other factors could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to those set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 under “ITEM 1A Risk Factors” and the following: (1) general economic conditions, especially in the communities and markets in which we conduct our business; (2) credit risk, including risk that negative credit quality trends may lead to a deterioration of asset quality, risk that our allowance for credit losses may not be sufficient to absorb actual losses in our loan portfolio, and risk from concentrations in our loan portfolio; (3) changes in the real estate market, including the value of collateral securing portions of our loan portfolio; (4) changes in the interest rate environment; (5) operational risk, including cybersecurity risk and risk of fraud, data processing system failures, and network breaches; (6) changes in technology and increased competition, including competition from non-bank financial institutions; (7) changes in consumer preferences, spending and borrowing habits, demand for our products and services, and customers’ performance and creditworthiness; (8) difficulty growing loan and deposit balances; (9) our ability to effectively execute our business plan, including with respect to future acquisitions; (10) changes in regulations, laws, taxes, government policies, monetary policies and accounting policies affecting bank holding companies and their subsidiaries, including changes in deposit insurance premiums; (11) deterioration in the financial condition of the U.S. banking system may impact the valuations of investments the Company has made in the securities of other financial institutions; (12) regulatory enforcement actions and adverse legal actions; (13) difficulty attracting and retaining key employees; and (14) other economic, competitive, technological, operational, governmental, regulatory, and market factors affecting our operations. Forward-looking statements made herein reflect management's expectations as of the date such statements are made. Such information is provided to assist stockholders and potential investors in understanding current and anticipated financial operations of the Company and is included pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date such statements are made. Further, the Company is required to evaluate subsequent events through the filing of its June 30, 2024 Form 10-Q. The Company will continue to evaluate the impact of any subsequent events on the preliminary June 30, 2024 results and will adjust the amounts if necessary.