The holding company for First Bank, headquartered in Southern Pines, announced Thursday an increase in fourth quarter net income of nearly 24 percent.
Earnings per share of 40 cents beat expectations of 39 cents per share, according to Zach’s Investment Research.
The $8.4 million in net income reported by First Bancorp was driven by loan and deposit growth, as well as an increase in non-interest income to $9.5 million in the fourth quarter from $5.7 million during the same period in 2015.
Loan balances grew 9 percent on an annualized basis during the fourth quarter, and deposits grew at a 5 percent annualized rate.
First Bancorp is the holding company for First Bank, which owns 89 bank branches in the Carolinas and operates as a state-chartered community bank with total assets of about $3.6 billion.
In June 2016 the company announced an agreement to acquire Carolina Bank Holdings in a deal valued at $97 million, consisting of 75 percent stock and 25 percent cash.
Carolina Bank, the subsidiary of Carolina Bank Holdings, is headquartered in Greensboro and operates eight banking locations and three loan offices in North Carolina with around $700 million in assets. If completed, First Bancorp total assets would increase to about $4.1 billion.
On Dec. 20 the transaction was approved by the shareholders of Carolina Bank Holdings, and First Bancorp expects the deal to go through by the end of March.
Throughout 2016 First Bancorp aggressively made acquisitions in order to expand and diversify its business.
In early 2016 the company acquired a Sanford-based insurance agency and a financial consulting firm related to small business loan origination. Both contributed to the increase in non-interest income.
Then in the second half of the year the company opened its own small business loan lending division, and also traded 7 bank branches it operated in Virginia for 6 locations in North Carolina operated by First Community Bank of Bluefield, Virginia. The company recorded a gain of $1.5 million in the third quarter related to this transaction.
Richard H. Moore, the CEO of First Bancorp, said in an 8-k filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company was pleased with the earnings but is also keeping an eye to the future.
“We also completed several initiatives that we believe will benefit our shareholders for years to come, and we look forward to completing our pending acquisition of Carolina Bank,” Moore said.
First Bank’s stock did not react significantly to the earnings release, but is up nearly 60 percent over the year.
