Business
United Bancorp, Inc. Reports on Its Earnings for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2020
MARTINS FERRY, Ohio, May 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: UBCP) reported diluted earnings per share of $0.28 and net income of $1,579,000
About this update from United Bancorp, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"MARTINS FERRY, Ohio, May 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: UBCP) reported diluted earnings per share of $0.28 and net income of $1,579,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2020, as compared to $0.28 and $1,614,000, respectively, for the corresponding three-month period in 2019. Even though the Company achieved the same level of earnings on a year-over-year basis, first quarter earnings were negatively impacted by a higher provision for loan losses in recognition of the unprecedented economic environment in which it is presently operating due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nRandall M. Greenwood, Senior Vice President, CFO and Treasurer remarked, \"In light of recent events, we are pleased to report on our overall solid financial performance for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. As noted above, our Company achieved diluted earnings per share of $0.28 in the first quarter of 2020 ---which was the same level as the previous year--- even though we booked an additional $473,000 of loan loss provision to give proper recognition to the risks posed to our Company by the COVID-19 pandemic. Significantly contributing to our achievement of a sound level of earnings this past quarter was the solid growth that our Company experienced in its earning assets on a year-over-year basis. Year-over-year, gross loans increased by $34.4 million, or 8.3%, and securities and other restricted stock increased by $57.5 million or 39.8%. This strong growth in our earning assets, along with robust loan fee generation during the first quarter of this year, led to an increase in total interest income of $1.0 million, or 15.9%, over the previous year. As we have formerly disclosed, our Company started to position its balance sheet to be more liability sensitive over the course of the past year in response to the FOMC's sudden change in the direction of monetary policy, which helped to control overall interest expense levels. Even with this change, interest expense did increase by $478,000 over last year's level. But, with our focus on both growing assets and aggressively managing our sensitivity, our Company saw a year-over-year increase in its net interest income of $525,000 or 10.3%. As of March 31, 2020, our Company's net interest margin was 3.76%, which compares very favorably to our peer and is relatively ...