Bank of Hawaii Corp. boosted earnings 5.5 percent and grew loans by double digits for the 12th straight quarter as it continued to benefit from a robust state economy.
The state’s second-largest bank said Monday it had net income of $45.9 million, or $1.08 a share, to match analysts’ estimates. In the year-earlier quarter, Bankoh earned $43.5 million, or $1.02 a share.
Loans rose 10.1 percent to a record $9.57 billion while deposits increased 9 percent to an all-time high of $15.05 billion and assets gained 7.8 percent to a record $17.27 billion.
THIRD-QUARTER NET
$45.9 million
YEAR-EARLIER NET
$43.5 million
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“It was a really good quarter,” Peter Ho, chairman, president and CEO, said in a phone interview. “We had growth in loans, deposits and assets along our expectations, and each of those categories are setting at record levels for the organization today. I thought that expenses’ growth (up 1.2 percent) was very well controlled.”
Bankoh’s stock closed down $1.40, or 1.7 percent, on Monday at $83.69. Its shares are off 5.6 percent this year.
Ho said the bank’s loan portfolio continues to shift as the Hawaii economy evolves. Commercial loans rose to $3.7 billion from $3.5 billion in the year- earlier quarter while consumer loans increased to $5.8 billion from $5.2 billion over the same period.
“The commercial loan cycle is pretty mature at this point,” he said. “We’re seeing evidence of that with some flattening in that portfolio. What’s driving our loan growth at this point is very robust consumer lending growth. That would be home equity loans, installment loans, auto loans, and we would anticipate that growth would continue as long as the Hawaii consumer remains healthy, and obviously with the unemployment rate (2.5 percent) we have right now, we would anticipate that would continue for a while.”
Bankoh set aside $4 million for potential loan losses during the quarter compared with $2.5 million in the year-earlier period due to the continued growth in its loan portfolio.
Analyst Aaron Deer said the bank’s loan growth and profitability have been at least as good or better than average compared with some of the mainland banks that have reported so far this quarter.
“It was a very solid quarter, and it continued to represent a combination of Bank of Hawaii’s strong operating strategy and the strong local economy,” said Deer, of San Francisco-based Sandler O’Neill + Partners.
Bankoh’s noninterest income, which includes service charges and fees, tumbled 11.9 percent during the quarter to $42.4 million from $48.1 million largely because its mortgage banking income was cut in half to $3.2 million from the year-earlier period.
“As rates have moved up over the year, that’s cutting into refinance volumes,” Ho said. “So our volumes are down a bit from last year. And then the gain on sale that people get in the secondary market when you sell those loans to generate that fee income has been lower. So it’s a combination of rate as well as volume.”
Bankoh, which is in the early stages of a $100 million overhaul of its 64 statewide branches and 22-story downtown tower, said its new relocated Manoa branch is scheduled to open Dec. 4 with its relocated Pearlridge branch to open Jan. 8. Both will be free- standing branches. The bank’s most recent renovation was of its downtown branch, which was completed in August.