Primis Financial reports Q4 EPS 33c, consensus 28c

Generated a margin of 3.36%, up from 3.01% in Q3. Excluding accounting adjustments from a third-party managed portfolio discussed below, Q4 margin was 3.09%. CEO Dennis Zember, Jr. commented, “We are excited that the hard work of the Panacea and Primis Bank teams has resulted in a very successful capital raise with sophisticated investors…Importantly, Panacea’s material improvement in profitability during 2023 combined with this infusion of capital immediately improves the level and reliability of earnings that Primis Bank will enjoy from the relationship and should be very accretive to future operations. 2023 was a challenging year for the industry and our bank. But through it all, we actually grew revenue by $14M or 11%. Our work in earlier years positioned us well and allowed us to continue growing loans by 9.1% but growing deposits even faster, 20.1%…Most importantly, we completed a restructuring of the Bank with some branch consolidation that when taken with our other successes points to continued improvement in overall profitability through the coming year.”