Northwest Bancshares reports Q4 EPS 23c, consensus 24c

Reports Q4 NII $106.3M, consensus $106.16M. Reports Q4 loan loss provision $7.9M vs. $10.9M last year. CEO Louis Torchio said, “We were very pleased with 2023 results as we continue to execute upon our commercial banking strategy despite the current year liquidity and interest rate challenges for the industry. We grew loans at a measured pace of 4.5%, but more importantly we reallocated over $440.0M from lower yielding investment securities, retail loans and consumer loans into the more profitable commercial portfolio, which grew $677.2M, or 17.1%. We were also pleased with the stability of our deposit base throughout the year which grew $515.4M, enabling us to reduce more expensive borrowed funds by $282.3M, and our tangible common equity grew to 8.30%, which provides flexibility for growth going forward. We have also taken additional measures to control our noninterest expense growth by consolidating three more branches, rightsizing our retail and consumer staff, and renegotiating third-party contracts across the board. These measures required severance and professional service costs in the fourth quarter of approximately $3.5M. The expense savings going forward will be allocated to the continued build-out of our credit administration, risk management, and internal audit functions that support our focus on commercial loan growth.”