Bogota Financial Corp. Reports Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2025

TEANECK, N.J., April 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bogota Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: BSBK) (the “Company”), the holding company for Bogota Savings Bank (the “Bank”), reported net income for the three months ended March 31, 2025 of $731,000, or $0.06 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $441,000, or $0.03 per basic and diluted share, for the comparable prior year period. The increase in net income was primarily due to a decrease in deposit costs and increases in the yield on loans and security income, which resulted in a $942,000 increase in net interest income over the previous year. The Company also recorded a one-time death benefit accrual from its bank-owned life insurance policy for a former employee of approximately $543,000.

The Bank has completed its previous repurchase program and has no repurchase program outstanding. As of March 31, 2025, 238,258 shares had been repurchased pursuant to the previous program at a cost of $1.7 million.

Other Financial Highlights:

• Total assets decreased $41.3 million, or 4.3%, to $930.2 million at March 31, 2025 from $971.5 million at December 31, 2024, due to a decrease in cash and cash equivalents, loans and securities.

• Cash and cash equivalents decreased $26.6 million, or 51.0%, to $25.6 million at March 31, 2025 from $52.2 million at December 31, 2024 as excess funds were used to pay down borrowings.

• Securities decreased $2.6 million, or 1.8%, to $137.7 million at March 31, 2025 from $140.3 million at December 31, 2024.

• Net loans decreased $10.2 million, or 1.4%, to $701.5 million at March 31, 2025 from $711.7 million at December 31, 2024.

• Total deposits at March 31, 2025 were $633.0 million, decreasing $9.2 million, or 1.4%, as compared to $642.2 million at December 31, 2024, due to a $9.5 million decrease in interest-bearing deposits, primarily due to a $17.3 million decrease in certificates of deposit, and a $1.2 million decrease in money market accounts, offset by a $6.6 million increase in NOW accounts and a $2.4 million increase in savings accounts. The average cost of deposits increased 13 basis points to 3.55% for the first quarter of 2025 from 3.42% for the three months ended December 31, 2024.

• Federal Home Loan Bank advances decreased $32.4 million, or 18.8% to $139.8 million at March 31, 2025 from $172.2 million as of December 31, 2024.

Kevin Pace, President and Chief Executive Officer, said “We continue to have a positive outlook on achieving the long-term goals we have set. We have also experienced immediate improvements from the balance sheet restructuring completed at the end of 2024. With a full quarter completed, the positive impact of the restructuring is reflected on our financials. The current market turmoil has created uncertainty around rates. We remain very mindful of this as we project our growth and look to improve our net interest margin.”

“Credit quality remains a focus, as it has historically, while we anticipate modest loan growth in the short term. Growth and diversification of our assets are a priority of our strategic plan and we remain dedicated to that vision."

Income Statement Analysis

Comparison of Operating Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2025 and March 31, 2024

Net income increased by $1.2 million to net income of $731,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to a net loss of $441,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2024. This increase was primarily due to an increase of $942,000 in net interest income, and a $590,000 increase in non-interest income, partially offset by an increase of $300,000 in occupancy and equipment costs, and a decrease of $259,000 in income tax benefit.

Interest income increased $862,000, or 8.6%, from $10.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 to $10.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 primarily due to higher yields on interest-earning assets, offset by a decrease in interest-earning assets.

Interest income on cash and cash equivalents increased $115,000, or 76.7%, to $265,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $150,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2024 due to a $6.7 million increase in the average balance to $16.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $9.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, reflecting the decrease in loans and securities. The increase was augmented by a 27 basis point increase in the average yield from 6.10% for the three months ended March 31, 2024 to 6.37% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 due to the higher interest rate environment.

Interest income on loans increased $396,000, or 4.8%, to $8.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to $8.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 due primarily to a 27 basis point increase in the average yield from 4.61% for the three months ended March 31, 2024 to 4.88% for the three months ended March 31, 2025, which was offset by a $8.3 million decrease in the average balance to $705.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $713.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024.

Interest income on securities increased $304,000, or 19.9%, to $1.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $1.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 primarily due to a 138 basis point increase in the average yield from 3.67% for the three months ended March 31, 2024 to 5.05% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 due to the rebalancing of the balance sheet in the fourth quarter of 2024. This was partially offset by a $21.4 million decrease in the average balance to $145.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $166.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024.

Interest expense decreased $80,000, or 1.1%, from $7.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 to $7.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 due to lower average balances on certificates of deposits, offset by an increase in the cost of funds. During the three months ended March 31, 2025, the use of hedges reduced the interest expense on the Federal Home Loan Bank and brokered deposit advances by $177,000. At March 31, 2025, cash flow hedges used to manage interest rate risk had a notional value of $65.0 million, while fair value hedges totaled $60.0 million in notional value.

Interest expense on interest-bearing deposits decreased $208,000, or 3.5%, to $5.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $6.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The average balances of certificates of deposit decreased $32.2 million to $484.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $516.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 while the average balance of NOW/money market accounts and savings accounts increased $10.0 million and $2.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, respectively, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2024.

Interest expense on Federal Home Loan Bank advances increased $128,000, or 8.9%, from $1.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 to $1.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025. The increase was primarily due to an increase in the average cost of borrowings of 24 basis points to 4.02% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from 3.78% for the three months ended March 31, 2024 due to new borrowings being at shorter durations. The increase was also due to an increase in the average balance of $4.8 million to $158.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $153.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024.

Net interest income increased $942,000, or 35.5%, to $3.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $2.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The increase reflected a 44 basis point increase in our net interest rate spread to 1.12% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from 0.68% for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Our net interest margin increased 48 basis points to 1.66% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from 1.18% for the three months ended March 31, 2024.

We recorded a recovery for credit losses for the three months ended March 31, 2025 of $80,000 compared to a provision for credit losses of $35,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2024 due to decreases in loan balances and unfunded commitments.

Non-interest income increased by $590,000, or 197.4%, to $889,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from $299,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Bank-owned life insurance income increased $550,000, or 259.5%, due to a death benefit received related to a former employee. Gain on sale of loans increased $29,000 compared to no gain on sale of loans for the comparable period last year.

For the three months ended March 31, 2025, non-interest expense increased $217,000, or 5.9%, over the comparable 2024 period. This was due to a $300,000, or 80.9% increase in occupancy and equipment costs, which increased as we began leasing certain offices as part of the sale-leaseback transaction completed in the fourth quarter of 2024, which was offset by a $78,000, or 3.6%, decrease in salaries and employee benefit costs, which decreased as a result of reduced headcount, taxes and a reduction in stock-based compensation expense.

Income tax benefit decreased $259,000, to a benefit of $28,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2025 from a $287,000 benefit for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The decrease was due to an increase of $1.4 million in taxable income, offset by the benefits of income from bank-owned life insurance, which is tax free.

Balance Sheet Analysis

Total assets were $930.2 million at March 31, 2025, representing a decrease of $41.3 million, or 4.3%, from December 31, 2024. Cash and cash equivalents decreased $26.6 million during the period primarily due to the paydown of borrowings and decrease in deposits. Net loans decreased $10.2 million, or 1.44%, due to a $6.6 million decrease in the balance of residential loans, as well as a $9.7 million decrease in the balance of construction loans and a decrease of $1.1 million in commercial and industrial loans. The decrease was partially offset by new production of $7.8 million of commercial real estate loans. Due to the interest rate environment, we have experienced a decrease in demand for residential and construction loans, which have been primary drivers of our loan growth in recent periods. Securities available for sale decreased $2.6 million, or 1.8%.

Delinquent loans decreased $842,000 to $13.5 million, or 1.92% of total loans, at March 31, 2025, compared to $14.3 million, or 2.01% of total loans, at December 31, 2024. The decrease was mostly due to the payoff of one commercial real estate loan with a balance of $455,000 and residential loans totaling $387,000 being brought current. During the same timeframe, non-performing assets decreased from $14.0 million at December 31, 2024 to $13.9 million, which represented 1.49% of total assets at March 31, 2025. No loans were charged-off during the three months ended March 31, 2025 or March 31, 2024. The Company’s allowance for credit losses related to loans was 0.37% of total loans and 18.65% of non-performing loans at March 31, 2025 compared to 0.37% of total loans and 21.81% of non-performing loans at December 31, 2024. The Bank does not have any exposure to commercial real estate loans secured by office space.

Total liabilities decreased $42.3 million, or 5.1%, to $791.9 million mainly due to a $32.4 million decrease in borrowings and a $9.2 million decrease in total deposits. The decrease in deposits reflected a decrease in certificate of deposit accounts, which decreased by $17.3 million to $476.0 million from $493.3 million at December 31, 2024, and a $1.2 million, or 8.3%, decrease in money market accounts. This was offset by an increase in NOW deposit accounts, which increased by $6.6 million to $62.0 million from $55.4 million at December 31, 2024, and by an increase in savings accounts, which increased by $2.4 million from $46.9 million at December 31, 2024 to $49.3 million at March 31, 2025. At March 31, 2025, brokered deposits were $94.2 million or 14.9% of deposits and municipal deposits were $39.2 million or 6.2% of deposits. At March 31, 2025, uninsured deposits represented 7.9% of the Bank’s total deposits. Federal Home Loan Bank advances decreased $32.4 million, or 18.8%, due to paydown of existing borrowings. Total borrowing capacity at the Federal Home Loan Bank is $261.9 million of which $139.8 million has been advanced.

Total stockholders’ equity increased $965,000 to $138.3 million, due to net income of $731,000 and a decrease in accumulated other comprehensive loss of $360,000. At March 31, 2025, the Company’s ratio of average stockholders’ equity-to-average total assets was 14.59%, compared to 13.99% at December 31, 2024.

About Bogota Financial Corp.

Bogota Financial Corp. is a Maryland corporation organized as the mid-tier holding company of Bogota Savings Bank and is the majority-owned subsidiary of Bogota Financial, MHC. Bogota Savings Bank is a New Jersey chartered stock savings bank that has served the banking needs of its customers in northern and central New Jersey since 1893. It operates from seven offices located in Bogota, Hasbrouck Heights, Upper Saddle River, Newark, Oak Ridge, Parsippany and Teaneck, New Jersey and operates a loan production office in Spring Lake, New Jersey.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements about the Company and the Bank. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding anticipated future events and can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” and “intend” or future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” or “may.” Forward-looking statements, by their nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results include increased competitive pressures, changes in the interest rate environment, inflation, general economic conditions including potential recessionary conditions, the imposition of tariffs or other domestic or international governmental policies, conditions within the securities markets, real estate market values in the Bank’s lending area, changes in liquidity, including the size and composition of our deposit portfolio and the percentage of uninsured deposits in the portfolio; the availability of low-cost funding; our continued reliance on brokered and municipal deposits; demand for loans in our market area; changes in the quality of our loan and security portfolios, economic assumptions or changes in our methodology for calculating our allowance for credit losses calculation, increases in non-performing and classified loans, monetary and fiscal policies of the U.S. Government including policies of the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a failure in or breach of the Company’s operational or security systems or infrastructure, including cyberattacks, the failure to maintain current technologies, failure to retain or attract employees and legislative, accounting and regulatory changes that could adversely affect the business in which the Company and the Bank are engaged.

The Company undertakes no obligation to revise these forward-looking statements or to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

LOANS

Loans are summarized as follows at March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024:

The following tables set forth the distribution of total deposit accounts, by account type, at the dates indicated:

Average Balance Sheets and Related Yields and Rates

The following tables present information regarding average balances of assets and liabilities, the total dollar amounts of interest income and dividends from average interest-earning assets, the total dollar amounts of interest expense on average interest-bearing liabilities, and the resulting annualized average yields and costs. The yields and costs for the periods indicated are derived by dividing income or expense by the average balances of assets or liabilities, respectively, for the periods presented. Average balances have been calculated using daily balances. Nonaccrual loans are included in average balances only. Loan fees are included in interest income on loans and are not material.

Rate/Volume Analysis

The following table sets forth the effects of changing rates and volumes on net interest income. The rate column shows the effects attributable to changes in rate (changes in rate multiplied by prior volume). The volume column shows the effects attributable to changes in volume (changes in volume multiplied by prior rate). The net column represents the sum of the prior columns. Changes attributable to changes in both rate and volume that cannot be segregated have been allocated proportionally based on the changes due to rate and the changes due to volume.

Contacts
Kevin Pace – President & CEO, 201-862-0660 ext. 1110