story from Talk Business & Politics, a content partner with The City Wire
Home Bancshares, parent company of Centennial Bank, reported a third quarter profit of $27.4 million, or 41 cents diluted earnings per share. One year ago, the Conway-based financial institution reported $18.4 million in earnings, or 33 cents diluted earnings per share.
Loan growth and acquisitions drove the positive news. In July, Home Bancshares completed its buyout and merger with Florida-based Traditions Bank.
“I am eager to report the company has achieved $208.3 million in organic non-covered loan growth since the second quarter 2014,” said Home Bancshares Chairman John Allison. “At this point, we know there is still an ongoing need for organic loan growth and are diligently pursuing the opportunities set before us. Additionally, on Sept. 26, 2014, we completed the systems conversion of Traditions and now can speed up the process of improving the financial metrics to maximize returns to our shareholders.”
Financial highlights for the quarter included:
Total non-covered loans were $4.58 billion at Sept. 30, 2014 compared to $4.19 billion at Dec. 31, 2013.
Total deposits were $5.28 billion at Sept. 30, 2014 compared to $5.39 billion at Dec. 31, 2013.
Total assets were $7.20 billion at Sept. 30, 2014 compared to $6.81 billion at Dec. 31, 2013.
Net interest income for the third quarter of 2014 increased 69.6% to $78.6 million from $46.4 million during the third quarter of 2013.
The company reported $10.8 million of non-interest income for the third quarter of 2014, compared to $9.3 million for the third quarter of 2013.
Home Bancshare also announced this week that it signed an agreement with Apple to offer Centennial Bank customers the new Apple Pay mobile wallet payment service. Apple Pay allows customers to load credit and debit cards from participating banks into an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, then simply hold the device near a contactless reader. According to Apple, there are approximately 220,000 locations with contactless readers in the U.S.