Signature Bank Earns $2.43 per Share

On Thursday morning, Signature Bank (SBNY) reported adjusted Q4 earnings of $2.43 per share which was well above Wall Street’s estimate of $2.23 per share. I call the earnings “adjusted” because the bank took a charge last quarter of $37 million due to their lousy medallion loan business.

Let’s dig into some numbers. Last year SBNY’s total assets rose by 10.4% to reach $43.12 billion, and deposits rose by 5% to $1.58 billion. That’s quite good. For the year, Signature made $8.91 per share.

“2017 was a year during which our highly successful, single point of contact business model further distinguished Signature Bank in an exceedingly competitive marketplace. We continued to attract quality business relationships as evidenced by the growth in both our core deposits and loans. Notwithstanding our challenges in the taxi medallion business, we were able to achieve a double-digit return on equity,” explained Joseph J. DePaolo, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Now with tax legislation becoming law and the positive effect we believe it will have on future earnings and capital, we look forward to the $50 billion SIFI threshold potentially moving higher, to at least $100 billion. This will allow the Bank to slow down the pace of expense growth. Realistically, Signature Bank, with its uncomplicated and straight-forward balance sheet, should not be subject to the same standards as a truly complex, systemically important trillion-dollar financial institution. We welcome 2018 as we plan to strengthen our foundation by making major investments in our loan operation and origination systems, payments architecture platform and new foreign exchange system. We also will look to expand our geographic presence in areas where we have significant client synergies, such as the West Coast, after we successfully tested the waters in 2017 with the appointment of a team and the opening of our new accommodation office in San Francisco,” he concluded.

For Q4, Signature’s “net interest margin on a tax-equivalent basis” bumped up to 3.07% from 3.05% in Q3. The bottom line is that, except for the medallion mess (which is being addressed), SBNY is doing quite well. Their provision for loan losses for Q4 was $41.7 million. That’s up 88% from last year. Thank you, medallions.

When looking at banks, there’s a key metric to watch which is called the “efficiency ratio.” It’s their overhead as a percent of revenue. (Signature defines their efficiency ratio as net interest expense divided by total income.) The efficiency ratio tells us how well run the bank is. The lower the number the better. As a general rule, anything below 50% is considered good. For Signature, their efficiency ratio last quarter was 33.5%. That’s very good, and it’s actually up from a year ago when it was 31.25%.

Traders were pleased by the report as shares of SBNY climbed Thursday morning to a seven-month high. Signature has been rebounding from a tough time during much of 2017. The stock is up more than 30% from its September low.

Posted by on January 18th, 2018 at 1:03 pm


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