Renasant Corporation (RNST) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Renasant Corporation's 2026 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kelly Hutcheson. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Renasant Corporation's quarterly webcast and conference call. Participating in the call today are members of Renasant's executive management team. Before we begin, please note that many of our comments during this call will be forward-looking statements, which involve risk and uncertainty. There are many factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, changes in the mix and cost of our funding sources, interest rate fluctuation, regulatory changes, portfolio performance, realization of the projected financial metrics from our recently announced merger with Commercial Holding Company and other factors discussed in our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our recently filed earnings release and the press release announcing the proposed merger, both of which have been posted to our corporate site, www.renasant.com at the Press Releases link under the News and Market Data tab. We undertake no obligation, and we specifically disclaim any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time. In addition, some of the financial measures that we may discuss this morning are non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures in our earnings release to the most comparable GAAP measures can be found in such release. And now I will turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Chapman.

Thank you, Kelly, and good morning. Third quarter results continue to show momentum in achieving our financial goals, adding talent and gaining market share. Adjusted earnings per share in the third quarter were $0.86, up 12% from 1 year ago. Adjusted return on average assets was 1.16% in the quarter compared to 1.09% in the same period last year. Similarly, adjusted return on average tangible common equity was 14.5% versus 14.2% in the third quarter of '25. The efficiency ratio also improved to 57.7% this quarter. Our core business continues to perform well. Highlights this quarter include strong loan and core deposit growth, a record level of loan production, a stable core net interest margin, a reduction in problem credits, a reduction in expenses and continued buybacks. While EPS declined linked quarter, this was primarily due to a higher provision driven by the ramp in loan growth. In addition, we are pleased this morning to announce the merger with Commercial Bank & Trust, which will strengthen our presence in Memphis and provide solid, long-tenured deposit and wealth management relationships throughout Western Tennessee. We are looking forward to welcoming Mott Ford and the commercial team to Renasant. And importantly, we do not believe this deal will distract us from the market share opportunities we continue to see across our footprint. Altogether, Renasant is in a great position to continue to improve financial performance and capitalize on growth opportunities and the commercial acquisition will be additive to that momentum. I will now turn the call over to Jim to provide more details on the financial results.

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning. Looking at the balance sheet, loans were up $555.9 million on a linked-quarter basis or 11.5% annualized. Deposits were down $73.2 million from the second quarter or 1.3% annualized, primarily due to outflows of public fund deposits and a couple of larger noncore higher cost relationships, offset by about 8% annualized growth in consumer and commercial deposits. Reported net interest margin decreased 6 basis points to 3.77%, while adjusted margin was down 2 (sic) [ 3 ] basis points at 3.58%. Excluding the accelerated bond discount accretion last quarter, core net interest margin was up 2 basis points linked quarter. Our total cost of deposits increased by only 1 basis point to 1.97%, while our adjusted loan yields increased 5 basis points to 6.08%. From a capital standpoint, all regulatory capital ratios remain in excess of required minimums to be considered well capitalized. We recorded a credit loss provision on loans of $13.3 million comprised of $10.1 million for funded loans and $3.2 million for unfunded commitments. Net charge-offs were $10 million and the ACL as a percentage of total loans declined 4 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 1.50%. Turning to the income statement. Our pre-provision net revenue was $112.6 million. Net interest income was $228.6 million, an increase of $0.9 million quarter-over-quarter. Excluding fair value accretion and the accelerated bond discount accretion last quarter, core net interest income increased $5.8 million linked quarter or 11% annualized. Noninterest income was $49.3 million in the third quarter, a linked quarter decrease of $1.9 million, which was primarily driven by a decrease in mortgage banking income. Noninterest expense was $160.3 million for the third quarter, a linked quarter decrease of $1.2 million, mostly driven by a decline in deferred compensation accruals. As to the Commercial Bank & Trust transaction, we have provided a supplementary slide deck with details on this transaction. A few highlights. The deal value is approximately $140 million and is comprised of roughly 75% stock and 25% cash. Slide 4 provides an overview of Commercial's high-quality, low-cost core deposit base. We anticipate the deal to be approximately 4% accretive to EPS and 1.5% dilutive to tangible book value per share with an estimated earn-back of just under 2 years. We expect to see modest diminution to the capital ratios with CET1 being approximately 11% at close. We anticipate the deal to close sometime in the first quarter of 2027. I will now turn the call back over to Kevin.

Thank you, Jim. We believe that Renasant is in a great position to continue high levels of performance while also taking advantage of opportunities created by industry consolidation. We appreciate your interest in Renasant and look forward to discussing our results with you. I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Stephen Scouten with Piper Sandler.

I guess maybe if I could start on deposits and just kind of thinking about with the strong loan growth you saw, how you think about the ability to fund that growth with deposit growth. I know you talked a lot about new customers coming on board recently. So just how that's developing and what you think can manifest moving forward?

Yes. So yes, look, as we look at deposit growth, and look, if you look at total deposits, there's some noise in there, and we tried to lay out what that noise is, particularly with some of our public funds. But if you look underneath that, core deposits continue to grow at an appreciable rate. I think in Q3, that number was close to a little bit over $300 million. And so the seasonality we see with public funds, you'll start to see that reverse as we get into the end of this year or early next year. So that will stop being a headwind and become a tailwind. But that hasn't distracted us or taken us away from the opportunity of growing core deposits. And also just on that public funds and maybe a little bit of insight is what the market is providing us with an opportunity is as we look at our cost of deposits relative to our peers, it's a tick or 2 higher than where we want it to be. Our cost of deposit is a little bit higher. And we can attribute that largely to some of the makeup and a little bit of a concentration in public funds. And so over time, we want to reduce that reliance. There's typically a higher costing, particularly in today's time where funding is more prevalent, everybody is looking for funding. The cost of those public funds have gone up. And the market opportunity has given us the ability to remix that funding. And really, it's driven on an effort to bring our cost of deposits down back in line with our peer and isolating that one difference. But as we look out, we feel that having a balance sheet that -- or a strategy with growing our balance sheet in the mid-single digits that over time, that allows us to properly fund it. And so I know this quarter, deposits didn't keep up with the loan growth. But over time, we expect that to be more in balance and more in line.

Okay. Great. And then maybe thinking about the deal alongside of that, it looks like a really nice deposit base, 150-year-old bank with a low loan-to-deposit ratio. Is that one of the primary strategic motivators on this deal? Or can you talk a little bit about what you liked and what drove that decision?

Yes. No, thank you. And it is. We -- just a continued focus of growing a stable core deposit base. That's been our focus organically. And then the opportunity with M&A to augment to complement that is something that I think we've talked about that we would look at that. And I think if you look at commercial and what it represents a very strong core funded deposit base with complementary wealth management that fits exactly the type of opportunity that would complement what we're doing. Said another way, I'm not sure right now we have a limit to our appetite on core deposits. We continue to feel and see that deposits and funding are tightening up. That is our #1 focus is continuing to grow our core deposit base. This just gives us a complementary opportunity to bolster and enhance what we're already working on at Renasant and frankly, what we already have at Renasant, but it just complements. And look, future opportunities that may fit a similar profile, we would absolutely look at. But I would say right now, our focus is commercial and ensuring that we have a successful conversion and integration of their employees, our new teammates as well as our new customers.

Got it. And just maybe last for me. With the strong loan growth and a pending deal, does that inhibit you from the repurchase utilization in the near-term at all?

Jim, do you want to take that?

Stephen, it's Jim. So clearly, as you point out, we've got some cash in the deal mix. And that probably at the margin, temper a little bit what we do in terms of buybacks, but buybacks are very much on the table. The Board reauthorized our program yesterday at $175 million. So we do intend to be active. It just may not be quite as active over the next 12 months as it was over the prior, but we'll see sort of what emerges in the environment and what goes on with our share price and other things, but intend to be active, just maybe not quite as active as we have been.

Yes. Makes sense when you can deploy it into acquiring low-cost deposits.

Our next question comes from Michael Rose with Raymond James.

Jim, I appreciate the color around the core NIM and some of the accelerated accretion this quarter. I think you said it was up 2 basis points [ for some ] of that. Just how should we think about the next quarter or so, just given the response to some of Stephen's questions around deposits and the like? Just trying to get a better sense for how that core NIM should move forward from here.

So yes, I think probably like I think a lot of banks in the quarter, we feel good about the behavior of core NIM going forward. And so I would say that our outlook, assuming, I guess, as I think about the next few quarters, I think we're sort of modeling a December and 2 other hikes in '27. And with that outlook, generally, we think there's some modest upside potential in that NIM. So -- and as you point out, we had good behavior in the NIM from Q2 to Q3, particularly when you make allowance for the fact that we -- Q2's NIM was a little higher than usual because of that extraordinary item. So we feel really good about behavior. Our core deposit cost was up, I think, 1 basis point. Loan yields were up nicely in the quarter. And if we look at sort of data from the end of Q3 and September data, all those things point to modest improvement to the NIM over the next quarter or 2.

Very helpful, Jim. I appreciate it. And then, Kevin, obviously, very strong loan growth this quarter. Obviously, very strong loan production, a record moderating payoffs. How much of that acceleration really is from some of the investments you've made in talent over the past year or so versus maybe market disruption? Just trying to kind of level set what the drivers were. It seems like everything clicked this quarter. And I think you had talked about kind of a mid-single-digit loan growth kind of outlook. Is that the way we should think about 2027? Or could it be potentially stronger just given some of those dynamics that I just laid out?

Yes. So thank you, Michael. Just the last part of your question first. So we still feel confident that mid-single-digit balance sheet growth is the appropriate level of growth. And I mean, look, as we see the environment and our outlook, we are still optimistic about being able to grow the balance sheet. We still have good commentary and dialogue with our customers. But I think that there's any hesitation to try to move that number up from the mid-single digits. It's just more concerned about from a macro backdrop. And so as we get clarity about what the macroeconomic looks like, then we might have a little bit more confidence to kind of push that number up. But right now, I think we're still very set on mid-single-digit growth, and that's the appropriate level. As it relates to where that growth is coming from, I'd say it's coming from all across the company. If we look at it from a geographic or from a region standpoint, everybody is contributing. We look at some of our specialty lines, our secured lending, everybody is contributing. When we look at credit channels, whether it's consumer or commercial or small business or larger corporate, again, everybody is contributing to this. It's not coming from a single all for one source. And honestly, that's exciting to see because it means everybody is plugged in and capturing opportunity throughout the market. And also, I think it's indicative of the investments that we made, not so much this year in the talent that we've hired, but really bringing The First and their team on board and allowing them to continue to achieve success, expand opportunity, capabilities. I think that's what we're seeing this year, which means the built-up demand, the opportunity from the hiring that we've done this year. And by the way, we -- this past quarter, we added another 11 revenue producers to the team. There will be the opportunity to continue to take market share that isn't quite reflected in the balance sheet yet.

And I would just add to that, Michael, on the right-hand side of the balance sheet, Kevin spoke earlier that underlying core deposit growth was around 8% annualized for the quarter. And of that 8%, a little over half, almost 60% of that 8% were from deposit customers who were new to Renasant, who previously had no account with Renasant. So I think that speaks. And we had that in Q2 as well. So I think the momentum certainly on the right-hand side of the balance sheet is there, and we expect that to carry over on the left-hand side of the balance sheet in terms of market share gains and net new customers to Renasant.

Yes. And sorry, just to continue to belabor a point, but I mentioned just some of the uncertainty about the macro outlook. And again, I just want to level set the mid-single digits because we don't want to try to force balance sheet growth. And we already see very tight competition from a yield standpoint. So if we set higher levels of expectations or just try to push to get higher levels of growth, we may have to give on something to be able to get that. And we're not going to sacrifice credit. We're not going to sacrifice yield. We're going to be relevant. We're going to be competitive, but don't want to try to force something and make a bad decision just because we're trying to set an expectation of higher levels of balance sheet growth. We need it to come at the proper level of margin and have the proper level of underwriting and credit risk as well. So that's just to level set. And I think we've talked about this in the past, that mid-single digit, we feel that gives us the ability to have a stable to expanding margin and grow the balance sheet at our historical credit risk.

The next question comes from Matt Olney at Stephens.

I'll ask about just expenses, saw some really good trends in the third quarter. And you mentioned, Kevin, hiring a number of new producers in 3Q on top of the adds that we saw in the first half of the year. So it looks like expense trends are kind of well contained. Would love to appreciate any additional outlook here on the expense outlook.

Matt, this is Jim. So yes, we were pleased with the behavior of the expense line in the quarter and to see that number continue to trend down. I think as we look to Q4, our outlook is for a slight increase in expenses, which could almost be 100% tied to what Kevin referred to earlier, and that's hires. We've had really good success on taking advantage of the dislocation and making some key hires, and we expect that to continue in Q4. So I would say that core behavior away from dislocation opportunities remains very solid and steadfast. But again, I think you'll see the number inch up a little bit because of the hires we've made. The other thing I'd mention, which, of course, you would appreciate, there'll probably be a little bit of noise in Q4 because we've got -- we'll have likely some merger expenses related to commercial.

Okay. Great. I appreciate the color there. And then I guess going back to the margin commentary that you provided earlier, any more color you can provide on just competitive pressures on both loans and deposits? Any notable changes from what you're hearing more recently compared to a few months ago?

Not really a change. I would just say this past year, it's been competitive, just particularly from a rate standpoint. What has become more pronounced maybe over the last quarter and we saw this in Q2 is the competition on the deposit side. That continues. Everybody is searching for funding. And I think if you look at our cost of deposits with what we've been able to grow and keeping our cost of deposits relatively flat, maybe it was up a basis point or 2, it shows where our focus is around where we have the opportunity to grow core deposits. I think Jim mentioned just some of that core deposit growth that we had in Q3, that came on at a rate, call it, in the mid-2s. And that's 1 percentage point to 1.5 percentage point less than the wholesale rates or even some of the product offerings that we're seeing in the market. So everything -- from a pricing standpoint, everything just continues to remain competitive. I think the dynamic in Q3 is that you saw the yield curve shift up. Rates were up, particularly in the 5 and the 10-year point of the curve. And we work to move our yields up, but spreads didn't necessarily expand during that same time. And so that's what we talk about with those competitive pressures is that the spreads just continue to be very tight, which means competition just is very competitive for that good balance sheet growth that everybody is looking for.

The next question comes from Will Jones with KBW.

So I know just a couple of questions, one with the deal, a couple with the quarter. I know we never model revenue synergies with these transactions, but you call out kind of a nice little wealth business that got there. Maybe, Kevin, just talk about what you see opportunity-wise there. If I heard you right, if another Commercial Bank & Trust were to come along, Renasant is still very much open for M&A if that kind of size and deal parameter were to come along?

Yes. So let me just clarify. So I would say that the opportunity with commercial fits the profile of what we're looking for, not necessarily looking to stack up a bunch of things, but this is the profile of what we're looking for. Just on the revenue synergies, we haven't really modeled any revenue synergies. We do believe there will be opportunity for that. With their wealth management, as we noted, they've got over $1 billion in assets under management in the wealth division, largely concentrated in trust. We have a trust department. And so we're excited about the opportunity to expand and enhance our trust capabilities in wealth management. And also, their growth in wealth management has -- particularly in trust has been at a notch or 2 higher than ours. So there could be the opportunity for revenue synergies, but it may be more on the Renasant side and what we can learn from them about strategies to pick up trust business throughout our footprint and as much as the opportunity with them.

Got it. Okay. I appreciate all that helpful commentary. Jim, maybe one for you. Just on the balance sheet, I know borrowings were a little bit higher in the quarter, just as we had some of the seasonal public fund runoff. Is the expectation as you guys feel better about the deposit pipeline next quarter that we would start to see those balances decline as you're replaced with some of this expected deposit growth?