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Investar Holding Corporation Announces 2023 Fourth Quarter Results
BATON ROUGE, LA / ACCESSWIRE / January 25, 2024 / Investar Holding Corporation ("Investar") (NASDAQ:ISTR), the holding company for Investar Bank, National
About this update from Investar Holding Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"BATON ROUGE, LA / ACCESSWIRE / January 25, 2024 / Investar Holding Corporation (\"Investar\") (NASDAQ:ISTR), the holding company for Investar Bank, National Association (the \"Bank\"), today announced financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. Investar reported net income of $3.5 million, or $0.36 per diluted common share, for the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to net income of $2.8 million, or $0.28 per diluted common share, for the quarter ended September 30, 2023, and net income of $8.9 million, or $0.88 per diluted common share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2022.On a non-GAAP basis, core earnings per diluted common share for the fourth quarter of 2023 were $0.39 compared to $0.33 for the third quarter of 2023 and $0.62 for the fourth quarter of 2022. Core earnings exclude certain non-operating items including, but not limited to, loss on call or sale of investment securities, net, loss on sale or disposition of fixed assets, net, income from insurance proceeds, severance, the Employee Retention Credit (\"ERC\"), and loan purchase expense (refer to the Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures tables for a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP metrics).Investar's President and Chief Executive Officer John D'Angelo commented:\"During the fourth quarter, we made significant progress on our strategy of consistent, quality earnings through the optimization of our balance sheet.We continued to originate high quality loans and allow higher risk credit relationships to run off. As a result, nonperforming loans improved to 0.26% of total loans. Additionally, we completed the purchase of the approximately $127 million second tranche of the previously announced acquisition of revolving lines of credit. The transaction improved the composition of the loan portfolio to 27% floating rate while raising the yield. Additionally, due to our diligent workout process, we reached final resolution on a nonperforming oil and gas relationship and recognized an interest recovery of $1.1 million in the fourth quarter, which was highly accretive to our core performance metrics.We generated record high total revenues in the fourth quarter while continuing to closely monitor and control noninterest expense. Stockholders' equity increased by $18.1 million, or 8.6%, compared September 30, 2023 due to net income for the quarter and...