Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fulton Financial first quarter 2026 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Patrick Lafferty, Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the first quarter ending March 31st, 2026. Your host for today's conference call is Curt Myers, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President. Joining Curt is Rick Kraemer, Chief Financial Officer. Our comments today will refer to the financial information and related slide presentation included with our earnings announcement, which we released yesterday afternoon. These documents can be found on our website at fultonbank.com by clicking on Investor Relations and then on News. The slides can also be found on the Events and Presentations page under Investor Relations on our website. On this call, representatives of Fulton may make forward-looking statements with respect to Fulton's financial condition, results of operations, and business.
These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, and actual results could differ materially. Please refer to the safe harbor statement on forward-looking statements in our earnings release and on Slide 2 of today's presentation for additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Fulton undertakes no obligation other than as required by law to update or revise any forward-looking statements. In discussing Fulton's performance, representatives of Fulton may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the supplemental financial information included with Fulton's earnings announcement released yesterday and Slides 27 through 34 of today's presentation for a reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures. Now I would like to turn the call over to your host, Curt Myers.
Well, thanks, Pat, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I'll provide a few high-level observations and some operating highlights for the first quarter of 2026. Then Rick will review our financial results in more detail and discuss our outlook for the remainder of the year. After our prepared remarks, we'll be happy to take any questions you may have. We are pleased with our start to the year. The first quarter reflects the strength of our foundation and the consistent execution of our strategy. We made continued progress against our strategic priorities by growing the company, delivering effectively, and operating with excellence. As a result, we are effectively serving all of our stakeholders. We've maintained a clear focus on long-term value creation, and the benefits of our community banking model are evident in our performance.
Our teams across the organization remain focused on serving customers and operating efficiently in a dynamic environment. From a performance standpoint, first quarter operating earnings were $0.55 per diluted share. Profitability remained strong with an operating return on average assets of 1.30% and an operating return on tangible common equity of 14.76%. These results reflect solid execution across the business, disciplined balance sheet management, and effective capital deployment as we repurchase shares while growing tangible book value. During the quarter, strong revenue generation and prudent expense management drove positive operating leverage, demonstrating the underlying earnings power of our business model. This execution resulted in an improvement in our efficiency ratio to 56.7% and supported strong pre-provision net revenue performance, increasing $9.2 million linked quarter to $141 million. Our balance sheet and liquidity position give us the flexibility to meet customer demand and proactively invest in growth opportunities.
Our continued investment in talent and capabilities remains central to our strategy. Targeted hiring and selective team lifts continue to enhance our growth efforts as these new team members become productive and help expand pipelines. These investments are translating into stronger activity, higher productivity, and deeper client engagement. Building our overall team is aligned with our long-term growth objectives. Loan activity during the quarter was solid, led primarily by growth in commercial mortgage, including an opportunistic purchase of an in-market commercial loan portfolio. That growth was partially offset by a decline in construction balances, as well as the continued planned runoff of the indirect auto portfolio. Most importantly, origination activity remains healthy. Pipelines continue to build and overall demand fundamentals remain constructive. Commercial loan origination increased meaningfully in 2025, and early 2026 origination is running above prior year levels.
Relationship manager productivity has further improved year-over-year, resulting in increased customer engagement and enhanced sales results. Given these trends, we believe we are well positioned to continue generating disciplined, smart growth. On the funding side, deposit trends were also positive, reflecting strong engagement in each segment of our customer base, supported by effective sales execution and disciplined pricing. Our teams continue to focus on building deeper, meaningful relationships, which is driving results and further improving engagement. This momentum reflects the strength of our relationship banking approach and the continued impact of our customer experience initiatives. We remain focused on maintaining a balanced funding profile while carefully managing deposit costs in a highly competitive environment. Non-interest income was steady during the quarter and again represented more than 20% of total revenue, highlighting the benefits of our diversified business model.
Revenue growth in wealth management was partially offset by normal seasonal declines in other fee categories. On a year-over-year basis, fee income grew more than 9% across all businesses compared to the first quarter of 2025. This was led by a 12% increase in wealth management. From an expense standpoint, we remain focused on cost discipline. Expense levels and underlying trends were consistent with our operating plans as we continue to balance targeted investments with improved efficiency across the organization. Credit performance remained stable and was relatively in line with last quarter. Non-performing assets improved to 55 basis points of total assets from 58 basis points in the fourth quarter. We are mindful of the broader landscape, including ongoing geopolitical developments and their potential impact on economic conditions, customer sentiment, and market volatility.
These dynamics reinforce the importance of disciplined, balanced, and prudent credit decision-making as we move throughout the year. We are also pleased to close the acquisition of Blue Foundry Bancorp on 1 April . This marks an exciting milestone as we bring together two organizations. Our focus is on thoughtful integration, supporting customers, aligning teams, and building on the shared strength of our combined franchise. Integration planning is progressing well, and we look forward to completing these efforts later this summer. As we look ahead, our priorities remain unchanged. We will continue to focus on profitable growth, prudent risk management, and disciplined capital allocation while delivering value for our customers, our team members, and our shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick to review our first quarter financial results in a little more detail.
Thanks, Curt, and good morning, everyone. Unless I note otherwise, the quarterly comparisons I discuss are with the fourth quarter of 2025. For the first quarter, operating net income available to common shareholders was $99.7 million, or $0.55 per diluted share, consistent with last quarter and reflective of solid execution across the business. On a GAAP basis, earnings were $0.51 per diluted share. The difference between GAAP and operating results was primarily driven by acquisition-related expenses for deposit and tangible amortization and other non-operating items detailed in our reconciliation tables. Net interest income totaled $262 million, declining approximately $4 million, driven largely by day count. Within that, interest income declined due to slightly lower loan and security yields, while interest expense also declined, reflecting continued progress in managing deposit pricing and improved funding mix.
The net interest margin was 3.58%, down just one basis point from the fourth quarter. Importantly, margin performance continues to reflect underlying structural stability rather than short-term tactical actions. Deposit pricing discipline continues to mostly offset asset yield pressure, and funding mix improved as brokered balances declined further during the quarter. Our interest rate risk profile remains relatively neutral, providing stability throughout a volatile and less predictable rate environment. Deposit average balances were stable while ending balances increased $179 million during the quarter. This was driven by softer earlier quarter seasonal trends, which rebounded as the quarter progressed. Growth was driven by higher savings balances and an increase in non-interest-bearing demand deposits. Total cost of funds decreased nine basis points, reflecting both pricing actions and favorable mix. Loan balances increased $121 million during the quarter, with average loans also up modestly.
Yield trends reflected ongoing repricing dynamics while credit spreads on originated loans remained stable. As always, we continue to emphasize disciplined pricing and return thresholds. Moving to the investment portfolio, securities increased by $28 million as investments as a percentage of total assets remained at 15%, a level that continues to provide balance sheet flexibility. Liquidity remained strong, supported by a well-diversified funding base. AOCI increased by $23 million during the quarter given the late March rise in interest rates. Non-interest income totaled $69.8 million, effectively flat with the prior quarter. Wealth management revenue increased during the quarter and was partially offset by modest declines in commercial and consumer banking fees, largely due to seasonality and two fewer days in the quarter.
Fee income again represented just over 20% of total revenue, which continues to enhance earning stability. On the expense side, total non-interest expense was $200.3 million, down $12.7 million from the fourth quarter. The decline was driven primarily by lower incentive compensation and continued discipline across non-personnel costs, partially offset by $2.6 million of acquisition-related expenses. On an operating basis, expenses totaled $190.7 million, and the efficiency ratio improved to 56.7%. We believe this level of efficiency is sustainable as we continue to invest selectively in people, systems, and strategic priorities. Credit performance remained stable during the quarter. The provision for credit losses was $14.4 million, resulting in an allowance for credit losses of $367.5 million, or 1.51% of total loans. Non-performing assets improved to 55 basis points of total assets, and net charge-offs were 25 basis points of average loans annualized.
Our reserve levels continue to reflect a balanced and prudent assessment of portfolio performance, forward-looking economic assumptions, and borrower and sector-level analysis. Turning to capital, our CET1 ratio increased to approximately 11.9%, and the tangible common equity ratio improved to 8.6%. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately $24.5 million of common stock under our 2026 authorization. From a capital allocation standpoint, our priorities remain funding organic growth first, maintaining discipline around share repurchases, and preserving flexibility for future opportunities. We closed the acquisition of Blue Foundry Bancorp on 1 April , and the transaction will be reflected in our second quarter results. From a financial standpoint, the deal is expected to be immediately earnings and tangible book accretive in line with previous expectations. Revenue enhancements are expected to be driven primarily by relationship expansion. We remain confident in both the strategic rationale and the financial benefits of the transaction.
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2026, our expectations remain consistent. We are affirming our full year 2026 operating guidance, with the only change being an update to our interest rate assumptions to reflect a 25 basis point cut in July rather than March. We continue to expect annualized mid-single-digit loan growth, controlled expense growth, and strong capital generation. Overall, our first quarter performance reflects high-quality, repeatable earnings, supported by prudent risk management and disciplined execution. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.
Certainly. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again, and please stand by while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question will be coming from the line of Daniel Tamayo of Raymond James. Daniel, your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody.
Morning, Danny.
Maybe one for you, Rick, on the expenses to start things off just because it was, I think, a better quarter than expected in the first quarter from a core perspective, but then the guidance was reiterated. Help us think about the pace of expense add and then cost savings as we go through the year. As we think about where we may shake out towards the end of the year from a run rate basis post everything with the deal, if there's a number or a way to frame that'd be helpful. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Danny. Look, I think overall, I was still on the annual guidance. I think still a lot of comfort right around that middle of the range. That would imply, obviously, progression higher, call it from that 191 operating base today on a standalone basis to something closer to 200 by the end of the year. Then you have to factor in that what we called out last time, we still feel very comfortable with that $27 million for the second, third, and fourth quarter combined for Blue Foundry. Well, obviously, that'll be a little bit heavier in, call it, 2Q. We're not planning for systems conversion until middle of July. We think by the end of fourth quarter, we will be at our 50% cost save run rate. Hopefully that helps.
Yeah. Maybe I can try and put a little bit of that well, I'll have to work through the model a little bit, but I think the number I'm looking at for the consensus, oh, I apologize, I don't have it up here, but I had a number around the 215 range, I believe, in the fourth quarter. Is that in the ballpark? Obviously, we'll work through some stuff over the next couple of quarters. I appreciate the puts and takes that you just walked through, but is it possible to get that specific?
My gut reaction is that that's a little high.
Okay
Based on where we should be on a run rate basis, and hitting that 50% cost save.
Okay. Helpful. Thank you. All right. Do you have just give us some help on the classified and criticized in the quarter, just directionally from where they ended in the year.
Yeah, Danny. Classified and criticized continues to trend down. Non-performing is trending down. Those credit metrics continue to either be stable or move in a positive direction.
Okay. Thanks for that. I guess lastly, the deposits, it was a nice strong quarter of core deposit growth in the first quarter. Just give us your thoughts, if you can, on your ability to hold those levels. Obviously not expecting maybe the same kind of growth going forward. From a perspective of non-interest bearing and just overall core deposit growth, how you're thinking about the trajectory from here.
Yeah. We don't see long-term trends changing. We did have good first quarter. Core was up. There's seasonality, there's account flows in commercial and municipal. Those things will bounce around quarter to quarter, but those kind of trend lines we see being pretty consistent as we move forward.
Danny, the only thing I would add to that is just keep in mind the composition of Blue Foundry deposits.
Right
in the very near term, right? We bring that on 2Q. They had obviously a very low concentration of non-interest-bearing. On a percentage basis, that's going to change our pro forma a little bit. On the balances, Curt's spot on.
Great. Thanks for the reminder and appreciate the color. All right, I'll step back. Thanks, guys.
Thanks.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up in the interest of time. Our next question comes from the line of David J. Bishop of Hovde Group. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, gentlemen.
Hey, good morning.
Hey, Curt, Rick. Just curious, you guys definitely bucked the trend in this quarter, Mid-Atlantic, able to show loan growth here. Just curious what geographies maybe drove the growth and just curious maybe what the prepayments and payoffs look like this quarter relative to the last few. Thanks.
Yeah, just kind of a couple points on loan demand and growth maybe overall might be helpful. We continue to expand the teams throughout the footprint. We've been ramping that up as we talked about over the last couple quarters. Pipelines meaningfully higher year-over-year. It's up even linked quarter. Fourth quarter, first quarter pipeline up, that's a good metric. You get to the end of the year, that typically tails off, and then you rebuild in this year. We're up linked quarter. We think we're generating the originations we need to get the guidance. We reaffirm the guidance. There certainly are headwinds. Runoff in construction for us. The perm market is very competitive. We're being prudent and pretty selective in what goes to permanent. You see over the last four or five quarters some headwind from that.
Borrower sentiment, they're a little apprehensive here in the first quarter. I think that's why you see a little softer first quarter overall. We're feeling that as well, but we definitely have some good momentum. Just to be clear, I think we have the team in place, and we're winning business to the pace that we can get our guidance.
David, as a data point on construction, the maturity schedule that we've seen and the actual maturities we've seen over the past year versus what we see over the next four quarters, so double, right? We're looking at 50% or less of that maturity wall for construction to perm over the next four quarters. That helps alleviate a lot of that future pressure as well.
Got it. That's good color. A follow-up maybe on a capital planning perspective. Just curious, remind us if there is any target levels you guys are sort of managing to in terms of maybe CET1 or TCE over and above you would consider excess for share repurchases specs?
Yeah. We don't manage to specific levels. We feel capital is pretty robust right now. We're pretty active in the buyback in the first quarter. We feel well-positioned to deploy capital. Again, that's organic growth, any corporate activities, whether it's a portfolio purchase or a bank or something like that. Then we'll use buyback opportunistically. We feel good about our capital levels, and I think that gives us a lot of opportunity and flexibility as we move forward.
Got it. Thank you.
Our next question will be coming from the line of Casey Herr of Autonomous Research. Your line is open, Casey.
Hi, good morning. This is Jackson Singleton on for Casey Herr. Rick, I just wanted to touch on NIM and TCE, given the close of Blue Foundry. Any help you can give here, just on what we can kind of expect directionally?
Yeah, directionally higher. Obviously, we reaffirmed our NII guidance, but feel good about the purchase accounting marks that we announced initially. You'll start to see that purchase accounting accretion come through in 2Q. I would say on the core margin, if you think about deposit repricing, I think that is starting to trough. I would turn attention more towards, I think it's actually Slide 21 of our deck, on some of that fixed asset repricing and the back book. A lot of the maturity, so just on that $4.4 billion of loans we have that are repricing within the next 12 months, you'll see at current market rates and spreads anywhere probably from 50-60 basis points benefit on that back book. You really start to focus more on the asset repricing going forward.
Feel good about the original estimates we had out there for Blue Foundry. That'll all start kicking in soon.
Got it. Okay. For my follow-up, have you guys done any work on just the Basel III proposal and the impact it could have on capital ratios?
Loosely. I think, obviously, there's some benefit to us because of the relative size of our residential portfolio. I don't have any specific numbers to cite, but it is modestly beneficial.
Got it. Okay. Thank you for taking my questions.
Our next question will come in from the line of Matthew Breese of Stephens Inc. Your line is open, Matthew.
Hey, good morning.
Morning, Matt.
Morning, Matt.
I had a few questions. I hope you don't mind, but I'll keep it tight.
Sure.
The first one was just, Curt, I think you had mentioned maybe a portfolio purchase. What was that? What was the size of it? In market, out of market? And are you considering additional portfolio purchases to get the guidance?
Yeah, Matt. It was a unique opportunity, I would say, commercial portfolio right in the heart of our franchise. It was a really good opportunity. We purchased it from a high-quality institution that does business the way we do business, granular, about $1.2 million average loan size in there. Overall portfolio was around $200 million. It's a pretty similar customer base to ours, again, right in the heart of our market. I think we've referenced this a couple of times, the last couple of years that we want to be in a position opportunistically, whether it's a portfolio purchase, whether it's a bank, M&A, things like that. We're always looking for these opportunities. It was unique, and we're positioned well, and we feel really good about it.
Got it. Okay. I don't know if this belongs to Rick or you, Curt, but with Blue Foundry, you get geography-wise, some deeper exposure to Northern New Jersey, which are economically more vibrant areas. How does that change the loan growth outlook for you all? Does it change commercial real estate growth dynamics? Is that a 2026 or 2027 event? Then maybe oppositely, is there anything on their books, now that you have it, that we should anticipate being in runoff mode?
Yeah. We feel really good about that market. It is a good market. We were in the market, just with a handful of financial centers, and we had kind of teams covering that from further away. It really gets us in that market in a bigger way. We feel really good about it. We got to legal day one quickly. Integration is going well. Their team's energized. Our team's energized. We feel good overall about it. The market, I don't think it's going to move the overall dynamics for us. We're going to do business similarly there as we do throughout our footprint. Their book is very much a community banking book, small business, and small real estate. We have a lot of opportunity to go up market in real estate, which they couldn't. Do things that we typically do throughout the footprint.
We're not looking to do anything different than we do. Our mortgage business, our wealth business. The synergy we got on the Republic transaction for our wealth business is pretty meaningful, and we think we're going to have those kinds of opportunities there. We see upmarket commercial, we see wealth, and then just a really good market overall driving all of our businesses. We definitely see it as a net opportunity. From a runoff standpoint, there's nothing on there that we're saying, "Hey, we don't do that business. We're going to run it off." Through transitions, you get a little bit of runoff risk that we'll work really hard, but there's nothing that is specific and purposeful that we'll run off there, that's meaningful to the overall organization.
Yeah. Matt, I might just add on. A significant portion of their originations have been either brokered or third party. We do have
Like on the residential side, we obviously have a pretty significant capability in origination. We'll be able to replace, not necessarily run off, but replace that with Fulton-originated paper, which is going to help spreads and absolute yields in those portfolios as well. I know it's a little bit of a nuance, but I don't think it's runoff. It's more of us using our capabilities to replicate what they were doing.
Got it. Okay. Last one for me. Share repurchases. You've been at it now for, I think consistently, five or six straight quarters. It feels like we've kind of ended up in a range of $20 million-$30 million per quarter in buybacks. Is that something we should model, at least the next couple of quarters, if not through the end of the year? Is that a good run rate?
We're always looking at that as an alternative. I think it really depends, overall, on a couple things. It depends on organic growth, that's what we want to deploy capital with the most, other opportunities that we have that we might want to kind of hold onto capital, certainly just market dynamics and pricing. We look at buybacks like we look at M&A or any other corporate activity. We have hurdles and metrics that we look at to be active in the market. There's typically opportunities within each quarter that we've been able to do some buybacks, and we would look for those opportunities as we move forward. We have $125 million remaining. We have plenty of room, and we definitely are looking for those opportunities.
Okay. I will leave it there. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thanks, Matt.
I would now like to turn the conference back to Curt Myers for closing remarks.
Well, great. Thank you all again for joining us today. We hope you'll be able to be with us when we discuss second quarter results in July. Thank you, everyone.
This concludes today's program. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.