Bank OZK Announces Record 1st Quarter Net Income

April 22, 2021 in Corporate News

Bank OZK Q1 2021 Earnings Release

Bank OZK is pleased to report record first quarter 2021 earnings.

Highlights

  • Record Net Income. Our $148.4 million of net income for the quarter just ended was our best quarterly net income ever, and our diluted earnings per common share of $1.14 for the quarter matched our best ever.
  • Solid Net Interest Income and Improved Core Spread. Our net interest income for the quarter was $234.6 million, an increase of $24.9 million from the first quarter of 2020.  Our core spread, which is how we describe the difference between our yield on non-purchased loans and our cost of interest bearing deposits, increased 59 basis points for the quarter just ended compared to the first quarter of 2020.
  • Excellent Asset Quality. Our focus on asset quality was again evident, as reflected in our annualized net charge-off ratios for the quarter just ended of 0.08% for non-purchased loans and 0.07% for total loans.  Our March 31, 2021 ratios of nonperforming non-purchased loans to total non-purchased loans and nonperforming assets to total assets[1] were just 0.25% and 0.19%, respectively.
  • Efficiency Among the Industry’s Best. Our efficiency ratio for the quarter was 39.6%.
  • Dividend Growth. We recently increased our regular quarterly dividend for the 43rd consecutive quarter.
  • Strong Earnings and Capital Create Options. Our combination of strong earnings and robust capital gives us great optionality to increase shareholder value.  Options for deploying our excess capital include organic loan growth, adding new business lines, continuing to increase our cash dividend, share repurchases, and financially attractive acquisitions for cash or some combination of cash and stock.

George Gleason, Chairman and CEO Comment in Earnings Release

“We are pleased to report excellent results for the first quarter of 2021, including record quarterly net income, strong net interest income, continued improvement in our core spread, excellent asset quality and an efficiency ratio among the best in the industry. Our combination of strong earnings, robust capital and an exceptional team have us well positioned for the future.”

Full Report and Management Comments

Bank OZK’s Earnings Release and Management Comments for the 1st Quarter, 2021 are available here.

[1] Excludes purchased loans, except for their inclusion in total assets.