Sierra Bancorp reports Q2 EPS 67c, consensus 59c

Reports Net income increased by $0.7M, or 8%, to $9.9M due to higher net interest income and a decrease in provision for credit losses partially offset by lower noninterest income and higher expenses. The $1.7M, or 7%, increase in net interest income is due to an $12.7M increase in interest income partially offset by an $10.9M increase in interest expense. There was an increase in investment securities which contributed $10M to the favorable interest income variance. This increase in investments primarily consisted of floating rate collateralized loan obligations, CLOs, which contributed to $7.3M or 57.5%, of the interest income favorable variance, partially offset by an unfavorable increase in interest expense due to a shift of deposit balances into higher cost time certificates and an increase in borrowed funds…Net income increased by $2.1M, or 12%, due mostly to a $2.7M decrease in the provision for credit losses, as well as higher net interest income on a change in mix of average earning assets, partially offset by lower noninterest income and higher noninterest expense. The provision for credit losses was $0.2M, a decrease of $2.7M, due to lower net charge-offs.