OceanFirst Financial Corp. (OCFC) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Thank you, Alfred. Good morning, and thank you to all who have been able to join our fourth quarter of the 2025 earnings conference call. This morning, I'm joined by our president, Joe LaBelle, and our chief financial officer, Pat Barrett. We appreciate your interest in our performance and this opportunity to discuss our results with you. This morning, we will provide brief remarks about the financial and operating performance for the quarter and some color regarding the outlook for our business. We may refer to the slides filed in connection with the earnings release throughout the call. After our discussion, we look forward to taking your questions. We reported our financial results for the fourth quarter, which included earnings per share of 23 cents on a fully diluted gap basis and 41 cents on a core basis. In terms of performance indicators, we're pleased to report a fifth consecutive quarter of net interest income growth, which increased by $5 million, or 5%, as compared to the prior quarter, and up 14% as compared to the prior year quarter. The current quarter results were fueled by an increase in average net loans of $446 million. Our net interest margin of 2.87% declined modestly compared to the third quarter. Total loans for the quarter increased $474 million, representing an 18% annualized growth rate, driven by $1 billion in originations. Joe will have more to add regarding our growth strategy in a few minutes, but we're very pleased to see the organic growth momentum that is a direct result of the investments we made in the first half of 2025. Asset quality remained exceptional, as total loans classified as special mention and substandard decreased 10% to $112 million, or just 1% of total loans. This continues to place us among the top decile of our peer...