United Bancorp, Inc. Reports Record First Quarter Earnings
ACCESSWIRE
30 Apr 2021, 01:05 GMT+10
MARTINS FERRY, OH / ACCESSWIRE / April 29, 2021 / United Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBCP) reported diluted earnings per share of $0.33 and net income of $1,908,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2021, as compared to its previous first quarter record level for diluted earnings per share of $0.28, which was achieved in the first quarters of both 2019 and 2020.
Randall M. Greenwood, Senior Vice President, CFO and Treasurer remarked, 'Even though our economy has not fully recovered from the impact of the events that have occurred over the course of the past twelve months, we are extremely pleased to report on our record earnings performance for the first three months of 2021. For the quarter ending March 31, 2021, our Company achieved net income of $1,908,000 and diluted earnings per share of $0.33, which was an increase of $329,000, or 21%, and $0.05, or 18%, respectively over the previous year. We are truly proud of these earnings levels, which reflect record performance for our Company for the first quarter. Our Company achieved this level of earnings performance even though we only saw marginal growth in our loan portfolio and a fairly substantial decline in our securities portfolio balances. As of March 31, 2021, gross loans were $450.0 million, which was an increase of $1.7 million, or 0.38%, over the previous year. In addition, securities and other restricted stock was $150.4 million, which was a decrease of $51.4 million, or 25.5%, from the previous year. Each of these levels are reflective of the conservative posturing that our Company has taken since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the decline in our securities and other restricted stock is related to the sale of approximately $32.0 million in agency and municipal investment securities, which produced significant gains for our Company last year in the second and third quarters. We firmly believe that this was a prudent action to take last year to help fortify our loan loss reserve and protect our bottom line net income. But, this action--- along with weaker loan production in this current economic environment--- has led to a reduction in the level of both interest income and loan fees generated in the current year. As of March 31, 2021, total interest income, including loan fees, was down $1.23 million, or 16.8%, from the previous year. We are optimistic that as our economy starts to recover more fully, as we are starting to see in recent months, that we will have better opportunities to leverage our securities portfolio more in-line with our previous level and ramp-up our loan production to levels at which we are more historically accustomed; therefore, increasing our level of higher yielding earning assets and generating more interest and loan fee income.'