Business
United Bancorp, Inc. Reports Record Earnings for Both the Fourth Quarter and Year Ending December 31, 2020
MARTINS FERRY, OH / ACCESSWIRE / January 21, 2021 / United Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBCP) reported diluted earnings per share of $1.39 and net income of
About this update from United Bancorp, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"MARTINS FERRY, OH / ACCESSWIRE / January 21, 2021 / United Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBCP) reported diluted earnings per share of $1.39 and net income of $7,953,000 for the twelve months ended December 31, 2020, as compared to its previous record levels of $1.19 and $6,810,000, respectively, for the corresponding twelve-month period in 2019. The Company's diluted earnings per share for the three months ended December 31, 2020 was $0.46, as compared to $0.31 for the same period in the previous year, an increase of 48.4%. Even though the Company achieved record earnings in 2020, overall earnings were negatively affected by a higher provision for loan losses and other expenses or revenue losses that it realized due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged our national economy and country this past year.Randall M. Greenwood, Senior Vice President, CFO and Treasurer remarked, \"In light of the events that have had a significant impact on our Company and economy as a whole this past year, we are extremely pleased to report on our record earnings performance for both the most recently ended quarter and the twelve months ended December 31, 2020. For the fourth quarter of 2020, our Company achieved net income of $2,640,000 and diluted earnings per share of $0.46, which was a respective increase for each of $872,000 and $0.15, or 48.4%, over the previous year. For the twelve months ending December 31, 2020, our Company had net income of $7,953,000 and diluted earnings per share of $1.39 versus $6,810,000 and $1.19 respectively for the preceding year, an increase for both of 16.8% --- even though we booked an additional $2,429,000 in loan loss provision during the current year, raising the level of our total allowance for loan losses to total loans from 0.51% to 1.15% as of year-end. Contributing to our achievement of a sound level of earnings this past year was the solid growth that our Company experienced in its earning assets. Year-over-year, average loans increased by $25.8 million, or 6.1%, and average securities and other required stock increased by $9.8 million or 6.2%. Even with the FOMC implementing its Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) early in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our solid growth in our earning assets, along with our robust loan fee generation (which increased by $575,000, or 61%, year-over-year), led to an ...