Community Bankers (ESXB) Tops Q3 EPS by 12c

Community Bankers (NASDAQ: ESXB) reported Q3 EPS of $0.30, $0.12 better than the analyst estimate of $0.18. Revenue for the quarter came in at $15.48 million versus the consensus estimate of $14.94 million.

MANAGEMENT COMMENTS

Rex L. Smith, III, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "I am pleased with the key performance metrics of the Bank as we begin to reopen and recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Credit quality is much better than we anticipated one year ago when the pandemic began, and therefore we released a portion of our allowance for loan losses in the first quarter, which helped to increase earnings. But even normalizing that event, the earnings for the quarter were impressive. Net interest income continues to increase as the margin has remained stable. Noninterest bearing deposit growth, combined with a reduction in certificates of deposits, has helped reduce our overall cost of funds."

Smith continued, "We are also participating in the second round of the PPP loan program and have originated over $45 million in new loans as we continue the forgiveness of the loans granted in the first round. We continue to see a return to normal payments for loans that we previously granted some form of relief, but we are closely monitoring loans that are in industries still suffering from limited occupancy and travel restrictions from the pandemic. Total loan growth was strong for the first two months of the year, but payoffs and PPP originations slowed total production for the quarter. We still believe we will see overall loan growth in the 8% range for 2021."

Smith concluded, "The Company is poised for strong earnings going forward based on our stable margin and ability to deploy excess liquidity. We also sold our largest and oldest foreclosed property in the second week of April, and so the amount of total nonperforming assets is significantly lower going into the second quarter. We are very optimistic for the remainder of 2021."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Community Bankers (ESXB) click here.

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