Business
Northwest Bancshares, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings and Quarterly Dividend
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwest Bancshares, Inc., (the "Company"), (NasdaqGS: NWBI) announced net income for the quarter ended
About this update from Northwest Bancshares, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwest Bancshares, Inc., (the \"Company\"), (NasdaqGS: NWBI) announced net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 of $29.0 million, or $0.23 per diluted share. This represents a decrease of $5.6 million, or 16.3%, compared to the same quarter last year, when net income was $34.6 million, or $0.27 per diluted share. The annualized returns on average shareholders' equity and average assets for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 were 7.64% and 0.80% compared to 9.38% and 0.98% for the same quarter last year.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nThe Company also announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share payable on February 14, 2024 to shareholders of record as of February 2, 2024. This is the 117th consecutive quarter in which the Company has paid a cash dividend. Based on the market value of the Company's common stock as of December 31, 2023, this represents an annualized dividend yield of approximately 6.4%.\nLouis J. Torchio, President and CEO, added, \"We were very pleased with 2023 results as we continue to execute upon our commercial banking strategy despite the current year liquidity and interest rate challenges for the industry. We grew loans at a measured pace of 4.5%, but more importantly we reallocated over $440.0 million from lower yielding investment securities, retail loans and consumer loans into the more profitable commercial portfolio, which grew $677.2 million, or 17.1%. We were also pleased with the stability of our deposit base throughout the year which grew $515.4 million, enabling us to reduce more expensive borrowed funds by $282.3 million, and our tangible common equity grew to 8.30%, which provides flexibility for growth going forward.\"\nMr. Torchio continued, \"We have also taken additional measures to control our noninterest expense growth by consolidating three more branches, rightsizing our retail and consumer staff, and renegotiating third-party contracts across the board. These measures required severance and professional service costs in the fourth quarter of approximately $3.5 million. The expense savings going forward will be allocated to the continued build-out of our credit administration, risk management, and internal audit functions that support our focus on commercial loan growth.\"\nNet interest i...