Fulton Financial Corporation (FULT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fulton Financial Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Pat Lafferty, Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the third quarter ending September 30, 2026. Your host for today's conference call is Curt Myers, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. Joining Curt is Rick Kraemer, Chief Financial Officer. Our comments today will refer to the financial information and related slide presentation included with our earnings announcement, which we released yesterday afternoon. These documents can be found on our website at fult.com by clicking on Investor Relations and then on News. These slides can also be found on the Events and Presentations page under Investor Relations on our website. Today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements. These statements represent our expectations about the future and are subject to risk and uncertainty. Our actual results may differ materially from these statements. Please refer to our earnings release and related slide presentation under the heading Forward-Looking Statements for a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ. In discussing Fulton's performance, representatives of Fulton may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the supplemental financial information included with Fulton's earnings announcement released yesterday and Slides 26 through 33 of today's presentation for a reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures. Now I would like to turn the call over to your host, Curt Myers.

Well, thanks, Pat, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I'll share a few details on our third quarter performance and provide some observations on current business trends. Then Rick will review our financial results in more detail and discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2026. After our prepared remarks, we'd be happy to take any questions you may have. The third quarter represented another period of strong performance for Fulton. Throughout the quarter, we supported our current customers, added new customers, executed on our strategy and delivered value for shareholders. This all resulted in record financial results. Our strategy is centered around 4 priorities: grow the company, deliver effectively for customers, operate with excellence and serve all of our stakeholders. We believe these priorities provide a disciplined framework for operating the company, and we continue to perform across each of these priority areas during the quarter. In support of our growth objectives, we continued investing in talent and capabilities across our businesses. Year-to-date, we increased our commercial sales force by 14% with over 2/3 of that growth occurring during the third quarter. These hires included experienced bankers, business development professionals who are helping expand customer relationships, complementing our strategic acquisitions in Northern New Jersey and Philadelphia. These actions, combined with ongoing investments in commercial banking capabilities, including treasury management enhancements and embedded banking solutions are helping us win new customer relationships. This is most evident this quarter in our commercial deposit growth as we added new customers at an accelerated pace, and we grew commercial deposits materially. Additionally, our process improvements are helping our teams serve customers more effectively and driving meaningful efficiency gains. We've expanded the use of Salesforce AI-enabled capabilities across the organization, powered by Coworker. Our adoption has been so effective that our progress was recognized by Salesforce at Dreamforce, where Fulton was highlighted for its innovation and partnership. These investments and enhanced usage are helping improve productivity, customer engagement and support our long-term efficiency objectives. Collectively, these efforts contributed to another quarter of strong performance. Profitability reached a record high. Operating net income available to common shareholders increased to $119.8 million or $0.62 per diluted share. Operating PPNR increased to $156 million. Operating return on average tangible common equity improved to 15.94%, and operating return on average assets increased to 1.4%. Additionally, our efficiency ratio improved to 56.8%, reflecting our continued focus on disciplined expense management. Our balance sheet also further improved during the quarter. Customer deposits grew by approximately $1 billion, reflecting both new customer acquisition and growth within existing relationships. This further improved our funding profile as we reduced broker deposits and other wholesale funding. We believe this is a significant strength for the company as our diversified customer deposit base continues to provide stability and support long-term balance sheet growth. While loan growth was modest during the quarter, underlying business activity remains solid. Customer engagement was high and pipelines continue to show good momentum. Total loan originations increased 23% from the prior quarter, reflecting healthy production levels. As we look forward to 2027, we believe several of the headwinds to loan growth should abate. This, coupled with increased production from the significant investments we are making in our people, capabilities and market presence should accelerate growth. Our diversified business model continues to be a meaningful competitive advantage. Wealth management assets under management and administration reached a record $18.6 billion and wealth management revenue grew more than 9% linked quarter. Commercial, consumer and mortgage banking fees also increased from the prior quarter, highlighting broad-based growth across our fee businesses. As a result, noninterest income remained a meaningful contributor to overall performance, representing approximately 21% of total revenue. Our capital position remained strong during the quarter. We repurchased $56.1 million of common stock, returning capital to shareholders while still maintaining capital levels that provide flexibility to support customer needs, invest in the business and pursue strategic opportunities. Tangible common equity ended the quarter at 8.4%, primarily reflecting the impact of AOCI, while our CET1 capital ratio remained stable at 12.2%. Credit quality remained favorable during the quarter, demonstrating the strength of our underwriting and risk management practices. Asset quality metrics improved, reserve levels remain solid, and we continue to view the overall credit environment as stable. Looking ahead, we are optimistic about the opportunities in front of us. Our diverse business mix, loyal customer base, solid balance sheet and experienced team provide a strong foundation for continued success. Overall, we are pleased with our third quarter performance, and we believe the company is well positioned. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick to review our third quarter financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Curt, and good morning, everyone. Fulton delivered another quarter of solid financial performance, highlighted by continued earnings growth, healthy deposit generation, favorable credit results and momentum across our fee-based businesses. For the third quarter, net income available to common shareholders was approximately $114.1 million or $0.59 per diluted share. Operating earnings were $119.8 million or $0.62 per diluted share compared to $115.9 million or $0.60 per diluted share in the second quarter. The improvement in operating performance was driven primarily by higher net interest income and noninterest income and lower provision expense. Net interest income increased $5.8 million or approximately 2% linked quarter to $290 million. Total purchase accounting accretion income was $12.9 million, consisting of $8.3 million related to the Republic acquisition and $4.6 million related to the Blue Foundry acquisition. This compares with $15.1 million in the prior quarter. Our net interest margin was 3.58% compared to 3.6% in the second quarter. Margin reflected lower purchase accounting accretion and the impact of carrying higher average cash balances during the quarter, which reduced margin by approximately 2 basis points. Average cash balances were approximately $1.1 billion compared to $842 million in the second quarter. Ending loans were relatively consistent during the quarter. Total loans grew by $44 million. Consumer-related portfolios grew $107 million, while commercial balances declined by $63 million, driven primarily by declining levels of commercial construction. Deposits totaled $28.8 billion at quarter end, an increase of $571 million compared to June 30. Growth was driven by strong customer deposit inflows across our commercial and public funds businesses. Demand and savings deposits increased $879 million during the quarter, including growth of $601 million in savings deposits and $324 million in interest-bearing demand deposits. As customer deposit balances increased almost $1 billion during the quarter, we continue to optimize the funding profile of the balance sheet. Broker deposits declined by $428 million during the quarter, ending at $547 million, while Federal Home Loan Bank advances were reduced by $553 million and fully paid off during the quarter. Noninterest income totaled $77.2 million during the quarter. While total noninterest income declined modestly from the second quarter, the prior quarter included approximately $6.9 million of income recognized from an equity method investment that was sold in the prior quarter. Wealth Management delivered another strong quarter with revenue increasing $2.1 million linked quarter. Our commercial, consumer and mortgage banking businesses continued to generate consistent growth. When combined with wealth, these 4 businesses grew at a 4% rate linked quarter or 16% annualized. Operating noninterest expense was $211.2 million compared to $210.6 million in the prior quarter. Items excluded from operating results included $5.6 million of intangible amortization and $1.7 million of acquisition-related expenses. Salaries and employee benefits increased during the quarter by approximately $5.6 million, primarily driven by higher incentive accruals, recruiting expense and 1 additional day in the third quarter. Overall, operating expenses remain within our expected range and Blue Foundry targeted cost saves remain favorable to original estimates. We continue to invest in talent across the franchise to support future growth while maintaining disciplined expense management. Credit quality remained sound during the quarter with asset quality metrics improving linked quarter. Net charge-offs were 0.14% of average loans compared to 0.34% in the prior quarter, while nonperforming assets improved to 0.52% of total assets from 0.54%. The allowance for credit losses was 1.45% of loans compared to 1.48% last quarter. Provision expense totaled $4.1 million, down from $4.9 million in the second quarter. Overall, portfolio performance remained stable, and our reserve position continues to provide solid coverage against inherent credit risk. Our capital remains a significant source of strength. Common equity Tier 1 capital was 12.2%, while total risk-based capital was 16%. Our tangible common equity ratio was 8.4%, which was impacted by changes in accumulated other comprehensive income. AOCI totaled approximately $370 million at September 30. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately $56.1 million of common stock at an average price of $24.14, continuing our commitment to returning capital to shareholders while maintaining financial flexibility. On a year-to-date basis, we have repurchased 4.1 million shares at an average price of $22.58 per share. We have approximately $58 million remaining under our current share repurchase authorization. Our capital position remains strong and supports future growth opportunities, shareholder returns and balance sheet flexibility. With 1 quarter remaining in the year, we are making the following updates to our 2026 operating guidance. Net interest income. We are raising the lower end of our range for NII by $5 million to $1.125 billion. We are lowering our range for loan loss provision to $30 million to $40 million. We are raising our noninterest income range to $295 million to $305 million. We are raising the lower end of our range for operating noninterest expense to $820 million. There are no changes to our outlook for full year tax rate. And with that, I'll turn the call back to Curt.

Thank you, Rick. The third quarter was another successful quarter for Fulton. We generated record financial results, maintained strong credit quality and continued to return capital to shareholders. As we look ahead, we remain focused on serving customers, supporting our communities and executing against our strategic priorities. We believe these investments we are making today position us well for future growth and long-term value creation. Operator, we'll now be happy to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James.

This is Tim DeLacey on for Daniel this morning. Maybe just starting off on deposits. It was pretty good customer deposit growth this quarter. I know that some of that reflects some of the normal seasonal rebound in municipal deposits, but you also kind of alluded to some of the commercial wins. Just curious if you can help us put a finer point on how much of the growth was impacted from those seasonal flows and whether you'd expect some of the solid underlying momentum in the commercial deposits to continue.

Yes. I appreciate that question. We had a really good quarter. So some of that is seasonal municipal inflows and it was supplemented then by really good core relational transactional deposit wins within commercial banking. So our treasury management platforms are solid. We're winning new customers. We really feel good about the wins to date. If you look at our business as we've really ramped up commercial bankers, treasury bankers, we're building a lot of momentum growing customers and you really saw that in the quarter. So overall, just commercial growth was almost $600 million, muni flows are about $400 million. So that's kind of the split between that. So you can see it's a really healthy split of just core transactional relational business that we're adding.

Okay. I appreciate that, Curt. And maybe just on the buyback, a lot more active this quarter. I know that you talked about a step-up in loan growth going here. Is this kind of a fair pace that we should expect on the buyback front? Or could we see a step down as the loan growth is expected to ramp up here?

Yes. So in the quarter, it certainly accelerated relative to the first and second quarter. We do have a fair amount of buyback remaining. It's really a strategic decision for us within the quarter based on what we see from a capital utilization standpoint. So as growth and capital accelerate, you would probably see that moderate to more historical levels. But we think that there's opportunity there within the quarter, and we've been pretty active, but we would probably expect that to moderate linked quarter.

Our next question comes from Casey Haire with Autonomous.

I wanted to touch on the loan growth. So it sounds like -- so production up 23%. So pretty good there. It obviously didn't come through in the third quarter here. Can you give some color as to what the paydowns and payoffs were in the third quarter and where you expect that? It sounds like it's going to moderate, but what sort of -- how much can that -- what kind of line of sight do you have on that moderating? Like what level will that be going forward?

Yes. We appreciate the question specifically on loans. Consumer loans met expectations were consistent net balance growth, I feel good about those businesses. To your point, commercial balances trailed expectations, mostly due to accelerated CRE payoffs above what we thought they were going to be in the quarter. And then specifically within that, it's really multifamily. If you look linked quarter and year-over-year, multifamily payoffs were higher than we expected. And that market is competitive. So we're seeing rates and terms relative to when we originated those loans 5 or 10 years ago, just being more competitive, there's more players competing in that market as insurance companies, nonbanks are in multifamily. So that was most of the story linked quarter. So those are our customers. So we're keeping the customer, but in some cases, losing those assets as we make choices around pricing and credit.

Okay. And then just switching to sort of the funding costs, deposit costs and long-term NIM. Can we get an update as to what you guys are thinking in terms of cumulative interest-bearing deposit beta through this Fed hike cycle and the spot deposit costs at 9/30, if we've got that.

Sure. Yes, Casey, spot deposit costs were 190 in September. I would say from a beta perspective, I'll answer a couple of different ways. But if we look back at the last rate hike cycle, over the cycle, we had just under 40% betas. I will say that was probably a more unique cycle given the starting point. And those betas didn't really do a whole lot for the first, call it, 18 months of that hike cycle. So it caught up really more towards the tail end. All that said, we do model historical betas into our forecast.

Okay. Great. And so that's 40% on a total basis. And the 190, that's for September, right? That's not 9/30?

Yes, that was September. But a couple of things just to point out, right? We do have -- we have obviously a pretty substantial municipal portfolio. About 70% of that is indexed. So those deposits, the costs on those move more immediate, obviously, following the September Fed hike. So that gets reflected into that portion of the portfolio a little bit sooner and certainly faster than it shows up on the loan side. So just keep that in mind as you roll those deposit costs forward.

Our next question comes from David Konrad with KBW.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the -- maybe the star of the quarter, wealth management. I think it was up high single digits quarter-over-quarter. So -- and I wouldn't think this would be a seasonally strong quarter. So maybe the strength that you had outlined the success there? And maybe what's the medium-term growth rate you expect in this business?

Yes. I mean the business performed well, and the business has been performing well. I mean we've had really consistent growth and performance in the wealth business overall. What's driving that business really across the board, we're adding new advisers. We're winning new customers. We're winning more assets with existing customers. And then when that's coupled with some momentum and consistency in the market, those things really have a tailwind and benefit. If you look at Page 21 on the investor deck, I mean, I think something to highlight there is just the diversification and kind of full service of that business as we look at mass affluent institutional and high net worth, like we're winning kind of in each of those categories. And we're a bank of choice for talent. And so we've been adding talent in each of those categories as well. So we think that's sustainable, certainly has the tailwind of a good market right now. That could go against you. But the core business of more wealth advisers, more customers and winning assets for customers is just really solid.

Our next question comes from Matthew Breese with Stephens.