Home BancShares, Inc. (HOMB)
NYSE: HOMB · Real-Time Price · USD
26.77
+0.31 (1.18%)
Apr 27, 2026, 2:35 PM EDT - Market open
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Earnings Call: Q1 2023

Apr 20, 2023

Operator

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Home BancShares Incorporated First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. The purpose of this call is to discuss the information and data provided in the quarterly earnings release issued this morning. The company presenters will begin with prepared remarks, then entertain questions. Please note if you would like to ask a question during the question and answer session, please press star then one on a Touch-Tone phone. If you decide you want to withdraw your question, please press star then two to remove yourself from the list. The company has asked me to remind everyone to refer to their cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements. You will find this note on page three of their Form 10-K filed with the SEC in February 2023. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and this conference is being recorded.

If you need operator assistance during the conference, please press star then zero. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Donna Townsell, Director of Investor Relations.

Donna Townsell
Director of Investor Relations, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thank you. Good afternoon, welcome to our first quarter conference call. Today's discussion will include prepared remarks from our Chairman, John Allison, Stephen Tipton, Chief Operating Officer, and Kevin Hester, Chief Lending Officer. The rest of our team is present and available for questions. Tracy French, President and CEO of Centennial Bank, Brian Davis, our Chief Financial Officer, Chris Poulton, President of CCFG, and John Marshall, President of Shore Premier Finance. It's been an interesting 90 days in the banking sector. However, Home is still standing strong. To provide you with more color on this is our first speaker, Chairman John Allison.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Good afternoon. Thank you, Donna. We usually open with profitability is the first thing, but during these times, we thought it was probably be more appropriate to talk about the strength of the company and the strength of Home BancShares. Our strategy and patience has paid off for our customers, our employees, our depositors, and our shareholders. The strength of Home's liquidity and availability provides more than 100% coverage for all uninsured and uncollateralized depositors as of March 31st, 2023, and that carries through today. I want to say that again, Home has the ability and the liquidity to cover all uninsured and uncollateralized deposits for any customer that we have in the company. We're very proud of that.

The strong liquidity of Home have allowed Home to pay all collateralized depositors with deposits in excess of FDIC limits of $250,000 and still have $1.7 billion remaining. That really equates to the fact that Home has the ability to cover 133% of all uncollateralized deposits. We're very proud of the fortress balance sheet we have built. Home BancShares, Happy State Bank, Centennial Bank is one of the strongest banks in America. There are only a handful of banks in the country that can be trusted to make this statement. I think if there was any concern from our depositors, I think this will comfort them. In the press release, there's also a table showing how the availability is available. I said last quarter that all banks are not created equal.

Our goal was not just to say we were better, but prove after years of excellent performance that Home should be separated from the pack as a very safe, strong, and well-managed financial institution. I hope you all agree that we have proven the strength of Home's balance sheet and the performance of a company that has stood the test of time again during a new and different bank crisis. What can possibly go wrong? I think we've seen about everything that could happen. What are the key factors that have not only contributed to the strength of our bank, but allowed top-tier results quarter- after- quarter, as well as year- after- year? Liquidity, capital, asset quality, loan reserves, profitability, and management experience. Liquidity was not important until it was. Banks get liquidity mainly from deposit, all forms of deposits, borrowings, security portfolios, as well as selling assets.

During 2021 and 2022, the U.S. government was spending, as some people would say, like a drunken sailor. During that time, we grew liquidity deposits, basically, to over $3 billion in excess liquidity. The great majority of these funds, Home simply put into Fed funds because we assumed many of these excess deposits would run off as interest rates continued to increase and as consumers spent their free money. If you watch the Wall Street guys, they said, "Cash is trash." How many times did we hear that during the years? Actually, cash was king then and certainly now more than ever. Banks with this newfound liquidity during that time decided to invest in low rate securities in what I call a race to the bottom on loan rates after we were in basically a low or zero rate environment for a long time.

That lasted several years until the drunken sailor spending created something called inflation. It raised its ugly head, causing the Fed to increase interest rates at the fastest rate in the history of our country in an attempt to quell the monster. With banks hungry for yield, they blindly piled into low rate securities and competed with each other, what I call creating a race to the bottom on loan rates. This was a critical decision that the leaders of the respective banks made that created this crisis. I've said for years that bankers who do not have any business experience are not the guys you want handling your money. Nearly all banks, acting like a pack animal, they took their employees, shareholders, and depositors straight to the slaughter because they built their houses on a straw.

Pull a list of banks over 100% deposit, coupled with a capital ratio of eight or less, and you'll find those bankers that hope the big bad wolf doesn't show up and blow their houses down. Many banks would fail. Actually, only a few would survive. Home built their house with bricks and steel. The truth is many would have negative capital ratios if they had to mark to market their securities portfolio. Scary stuff. If Home were to take the marks to mark to market, we would remain one of the best capitalized banks in America, different from many, many banks. 100% or greater loan-to-deposit with 8% capital or less is a recipe for disaster. When cash runs out, and banks deplete their barns, they have no choice but to go to broker deposits and high rate CDs.

Whether it kills their margin and profitability or not, they turn into the survival mode. Watch the CD ads. You've seen all these CD ads hit in the paper. That'll tell you who is in dire need for money. You've not seen one CD ad from Home Banc, Home BancShares, Centennial Bank, or Happy Bank. That should comfort all our depositors. Home has the cash liquidity and availability, as I said, to pay all deposits. Assuming Home was forced tomorrow to do that and had no liquidity and had to borrow $5 billion at an interest rate of 5%, creating an additional $250 million in interest expense, Home would still run a 1.2 ROA, and that's better than 90% of the banks in the country run today. We have provided this chart to show you our availability of barns.

If a bank can pay out all uninsured depositors and still make a 1% ROA, one of the top bank analysts in the country said, "Banks that can do that are in the catbird seat." Welcome to Home BancShares. Home BancShares capital ratios are in the top tier of all banks. The conservative management team will always maintain strong capital because you can't get capital when you have to have it. Prime example is Silicon Valley Bank, SVB. Enough said about that. As your largest individual shareholder in Home BancShares, with this company being my largest personal asset, I certainly have a vested interest in protecting what my wife calls the chuck wagon, and Home BancShares is the chuck wagon. It feeds all of us.

Most of you know she's very protective of her dividend, when I told her about the bank crisis, she said, "Protect the chuck wagon at all costs." Circle the wagon with our strong employees, our partners, our shareholders, our customers, and depositors. That is exactly what we've done. Good liquidity, strong capital, huge loan loss reserves, strong asset quality coupled with peer-leading profitability. By the way, it's also the largest asset of our executive committee and some of our directors, we're all focused on the same goal. Asset quality, while maintaining one of the highest loan loss reserves in the country, rather than play jack-in-the-box, raising and lowering quarter after quarter because all the factors we faced over the last 23 years, we know what has worked for the last 40 years, and that is a 2% reserve balance.

The company's reserve is $287.2 million, or 2%, compared to December 31, when it was 2.01%. The allowance for credit losses on loans represents 383% of non-performing loans. What that means is if we have $100 worth of non-performing loans, we have $388 worth of reserve to cover that $100 worth of loans. Stockholders' equity grew for the quarter $104 million. That was a combination of retained earnings at $66.3, plus $49.2 million reduction in AOCI as interest rates softened somewhat. Let's go talk about the earnings. Earnings for the quarter were $103 million, or $0.51 per share, and adjusted earnings of $0.54 per share.

Return on assets was 1.84%, adjusted at 1.95%. Return on tangible common equity was 19.75%, or adjusted to 20.90%. Tangible book value of $10.71. That's $10.71. That's an increase of 5.4% from the first quarter. T angible common equ ity as a percent of tangible total equity was 10.33% at 3/31 versus 9.66% at 12/31/2022. If we took the held maturity loss of $86 million after tax, we would still remain almost 10%. We actually would be 9.97%. Pretty damn strong stuff. PPNR is 53.91. Total interest income was $284,939,000. I think that's a record, Brian. I don't think we've ever hit that number on total interest income.

Brian Davis
CFO, Home BancShares Incorporated

No, I think that is a record. You're right.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Net interest income was $214,595,000 versus the fourth quarter of last year at $215,666,000. We're basically flat. Total revenue was $248,759,000. The difference there is the fair market adjustment on holding company bank stocks and preferreds, which hit us for about $11.3 million?

Brian Davis
CFO, Home BancShares Incorporated

11. 4.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

About $11.4 million. We didn't sell them, so we didn't lose that money as expected, and I'm seeing a recovery in those coming back today, so that's good. We'll keep them. We bought them for the dividends, and we'll hold them. Margin improved again to 4.37 from 4.21. I've listen this from a year ago. A year ago this time we were at 3.21, and now we're at 4.37. That's 116 basis points. That's pretty impressive. Non-interest expense, great job, guys. $114 million versus $118 million. We're down about $4 million over last quarter. Efficiency Ratio 44.80%, adjusted to 43.42%. Tangible Common Equity as a percent of total equity was 10.33% versus 9.66%. Common equity tier 1 .

I've got I don't know you, I had Brian run this for me. I said, "Brian, run this and show me our capital ratios, and then take the entire loss of the AOCI and the HTM, both HTM and AFS, add those together, and tell me where we would rank." When you hear you'll hear common equity tier 1, you're gonna hear two numbers. One of them is before, and one of them is after. It's 13.2% now and 11.4% if we take all the losses, which we have no reason to do. Leverage ratio from 11.4% to 9.8%. Tier 1 capital from 13.2% to 11.4%. Risk-based capital from 16.8% to 15%. That's pretty amazing numbers.

That puts us. Those second numbers of each one of those categories puts us in top class in the country. The yield on our securities book, I'm very proud of, is 3.30. Good job by our guys there. That's probably about what most banks' loan yields are. Yield on our book is 6.64. Our loan book, that's 6.64 versus 6.23. That's a pretty nice increase. From this time last year, it was 5.29. That's a 135 basis point increase. We bought back 590,000 shares during the first quarter, and we've repurchased over 250,000 shares so far this quarter, mostly through our 10b5-1 filing. It's been on sale, we thought it was a good buy.

I've not seen another bank present their ability to pay out all their uninsured deposits, including the big money center bank that everyone's raving about. This does not mean they can't. Why would a bank not disclose their ability to pay out all insured deposits if they can? I would imagine the difference is buried in the security book. If we were forced to liquidate our securities book today, which we're not, Home's loss would be pre-tax of $454,675,000 based on a $5.4 billion security book. That equates to 8.42% pre-tax or after-tax, 6.34%. Many banks have 30%, 40%, and 50% haircuts to take, I assume that's why they won't be wanting to disclose that.

As I showed earlier, Home would still remain one of the best capitalized banks in America. Home's customers can take their money out of the mattress and put it back in the bank. Talk a little bit about a lawsuit we did. We had some West Texas headwinds. That situation has improved some. We filed a lawsuit against 17 individuals March 3rd, 2023 that we derived through our forensic investigators had improperly transferred Happy's data. We're not gonna say anything else about that. Some of those offices have been closed. There's been some changes out there. Until we're fully compensated in this suit, we'll continue against all those parties. Conclusion. Everyone says they're worried about regional banks. You don't need to worry about Home. I think Home is in the best position of any bank in the country.

I hope that eases all of you. In addition to that, we had a great quarter. I really don't have much to say negative about the quarter other than deposits went down some, as we expected. Outside of that, we're hanging in really good. I think I've said I want to continue our $100 million run rate per quarter. I think we can do that. If we can do that, we're gonna earn $400 plus. In the middle of a crisis like this, I think that's pretty darn good. Tracy French, our CEO, who's had his head down and been pretty darn busy lately, I thought I'd just see if he had a comment.

Tracy French
President and CEO, Centennial Bank

Johnny, you made me feel comfortable just listening to your numbers and rattled off how safe and sound we are, which we've always known that. I'll compliment you and the board on that. It's pretty simple, just stay to basic banking. I heard Donna say the last quarter's been crazy. I've been working for you for 84 quarters. It's been entertaining every damn quarter. It really is coming back to just the basics of banking and us staying the course as we've done through several curve balls that's been thrown at us. It's a compliment to our team. I know Stephen and Kevin are going to give a little color on the loans and deposits. You know, we talk about the loan deposit ratio.

I've been doing deposit to loan ratio over the last two years, and it turns out to be a-- we're in pretty good shape. Our deposits, as you mentioned, Stephen, to give a color on, the past. Since the first of this month, we've seen a nice increase. Uncle Sam's gonna get his fair share over the next few weeks, and we anticipate. I'm proud to say we, in the banking part, we got another line item that's coming to be in after our trust company. We've got Kevin Orr and Joby Mills and Jeff Kelly with their Gold Star. They're going to become a line item for us. That's a positive for our company as we see other areas that can step up and pick the ball up for us along the way.

You know, performance metrics you gave, Johnny, I just wanna mention something. This is on the regional bank and the bank ROA. When you say it's a 2.09%, that's pretty damn good, and it's been a constant improvement. I can tell you got three regions that did over 3%. You got one region, Caddo, that's did over 4% the past quarter. That's a compliment to our regional managers, our retail leaders, our loan officers, and everything that deals with that because they've been working this all the time. It's not just been the last month, it's not been the last quarter, it's not been the last half a year. It's been constantly working and the proof's in the numbers on that.

To finalize that comment, Johnny, I heard, you know we focus a lot on our margin. Our margin in the bank has gone from 3.74 to 4.13 to 4.29 to this quarter, 4.46. 16 basis point increase in the quarter. You can probably come give me a pat on the back on that.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I think it's okay.

Tracy French
President and CEO, Centennial Bank

It's okay. Johnny says it's okay for all the regional and retail folks, but outstanding job, so thank you for all the support that our team has given us, every single one of them.

Donna Townsell
Director of Investor Relations, Home BancShares Incorporated

There are some very powerful statements in both of those messages. Thank you very much, and I'll just say I'm, for one, proud to be on the Chuck Wagon. Thank you for those comments. Our next update now will be from Stephen Tipton.

Stephen Tipton
COO, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thanks, Donna. I'll start with the topics of liquidity and funding. As we have mentioned over each of the past three quarters, we've seen a shift of deposit balances going to investment firms, money market mutual funds, and some banks with an obvious need for funding. The first quarter of 2023 was no different. Total deposits declined slightly less than $500 million in the quarter and was spread fairly evenly across each of the past three months. The quarterly decline in total deposits was the lowest since the Happy acquisition one year ago. Absent outflows this month related to tax filings, as Tracy mentioned, maybe we'll begin to see that level out. Johnny mentioned the analysis we recently completed on uninsured balances relative to our borrowing capacity.

Adjusting for collateralized deposits, which are generally the municipalities, local school districts, and higher ed relationships we've long banked, the calculated uninsured balances are 29.9% of our total deposits. While our company's size and strength today allows us to expand and take on larger relationships, both on the loan and deposit side, we still believe in the franchise value of having core relationships and a granular deposit base. Currently, broker deposits comprise 2.6% of total liabilities, and our internal limits would allow us to grow that by over $1.3 billion if we ever needed to. Our top 10 list of depositors accounts for only 6% of our total deposits, and only two of those customers are considered uninsured or uncollateralized.

An updated review of our deposit base shows nearly 500,000 deposit accounts, with over 70% of those having been open and active for at least three years, and over 25% of those active over a decade. The mix and balances stands at approximately 2/3 commercial or business and 1/3 retail today, while the number of deposit accounts is approximately 80% retail. New account opening activity continues to be strong with over 14,000 new accounts opened in Q1, and March actually was a bit more active than we've seen in the past. Switching to capital, as John mentioned, the parent company total Risk-Based Capital ratio ended at a very strong 16.8% and a TCE or tangible common equity to total assets ratio of 10.33%.

As he mentioned, we repurchased 590,000 shares of stock during the first quarter and continue to be active under our 10b5-1 plan that's in place now. On the asset side, coming off a very strong fourth quarter, loan origination volume softened to $1.09 billion, with over 75% of the volume coming from the community bank regions, and that was split fairly evenly between Arkansas, Florida, and Texas production. Finally, the net interest margin improved 16 basis points in Q1 to 4.37% as our bankers continue to do a great job managing this interest rate environment. Interest-bearing deposits averaged 1.90% in Q1, which was up 45 basis points from Q4, and exited the quarter in March at 2.01%.

The core loan yield, excluding accretion and event income, averaged 6.49% and was up 39 basis points from Q4 and exited the quarter in March at 6.54%. With that, Donna, I'll turn it back over to you.

Donna Townsell
Director of Investor Relations, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thank you, Stephen. Now Kevin Hester will provide us with a lending report.

Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thanks, Donna. Good afternoon, everyone. As Johnny appropriately stated earlier, one of the key factors that has contributed to the strength of Home BancShares has been our compelling asset quality. I believe that the following color on the activities of the first quarter will bear out that this continues to be a strength of our company. Non-performing loans and non-performing assets remain at very low levels of 0.51% and 0.33% respectively. A detailed review of the increase in non-accruals of $13 million this quarter reveals two CCFG C&I credits totaling about $6 million. Our internal analysis of the entirety of CCFG C&I portfolio indicates a potential loss of only $5 million, which is all within its Shared National Credit portfolio.

We shifted away from SNCs some time ago. This part of their C&I portfolio has been winding down accordingly. The remaining $7 million is spread across a few credits in the community bank footprint. Based on payments that have been made to date or renewals that are in process, at least the same amount will be returned to accrual in the second quarter. For those of you that may not remember, Arkansas state banking law requires automatic non-accrual at 105 days past due, regardless of whether it is in the process of collection. The timing of these payments and renewals will allow the reversal of most of these new additions. As Johnny stated, the allowance for credit losses remains at 2% of loans and provides 388% coverage of non-performing loans, both stellar measures.

Past dues totaled only 0.62% of loans, even with a total of $30 million in ALF and memory care loans added to the total this quarter. We have discussed these loans previously, I'll give you an update on that portfolio momentarily. At this time, I would like to turn it over to John Marshall, who will provide you some information on the asset quality for Shore Premier Finance. John?

John Marshall
President, Shore Premier Finance

Yeah. Kevin, thank you. You know, I think Centennial Bank enjoys very high asset quality. The division Shore Premier Finance in the marine finance space also enjoys very good asset quality because of our underwriting standards. We haven't, through this cycle, seen any deterioration. In fact, our delinquency, which normally runs, this is for 30-plus days delinquent, around 11 to 14 basis points. Kevin, at the end of the first quarter, we saw improvement so that it was under $800,000 and about 8 basis points on a $1 billion book. I'm very pleased with the way asset quality in the marine space is holding up. Thank you.

Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thanks, John. That's impressive and is directly related to your group's rigorous underwriting practices. As I mentioned, we've been working through a portfolio of about $100 million in ALF and memory care loans in Florida for some time. In January, the equity partner disclosed that they were wanting to exit some of these properties. We have been negotiating a soft landing for these assets. I'm pleased to report that there are multiple buyers for this equity position. We have always contended that we underwrote these assets conservatively with a low leverage position. Based on the ongoing negotiations, which are nearing finality, we do not expect any loss on this portfolio. We expect all to be resolved by the time that we report again in 90 days.

I wanted to mention that due to the concerns of some regarding certain asset classes, we chose to refresh the deep dive into the office portfolio that we performed back in 2020. This analysis was completed during the first quarter using balances of the portfolio at 12/31/2022, and the results were included in this quarter's press release. I would like to point out that rolling forward to 3/31/2023, there is no change in the asset quality of this portfolio, which continues to exhibit low problem loan totals and less than 1% past due. Notably, nearly 60% of the portfolio is located within our community bank footprint, with most of that in Texas and Florida, which are states that should be less impacted by changes in how office space is utilized post-COVID.

Even within these states, the majority of these balances are in the very strong geographies of DFW and Miami, which continue to experience high levels of population and company headquarter inflow. Positive attributes such as low leverage, high occupancy, and predominantly low rise come to mind as a result of this analysis. Outside of a couple of instances within the community bank footprint, most of our recent additions to this asset class have come through CCFG as a part of a multi-asset facility. For most of these additions, office is not the highest and best use, nor is it what the valuation is based on. We continue to be very positive about our exposure in this potentially fragile asset class. Donna, that's all I've got, and I'll turn it back over to you.

Donna Townsell
Director of Investor Relations, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thank you, Kevin. Johnny, before we go to Q&A, do you have any additional comments?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I just think it was a great quarter overall. I said, what the fuck could possibly go wrong? You think about the worst financial crash since the Great Depression in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. We weathered that. Really didn't see this liquidity crisis coming. We called the shots to maintain lots of liquidity, and we certainly called the right shots. I'm sure there's a lot of envious banks on Home BancShares today because they spent their money and put it in different asset classes, well we didn't. When it ran off, we had the cash to let it go.

Anyway, it was, I hope everybody thinks as good as I think it was, but based on what we saw, what happened in the marketplace, I also think there may be some opportunities on the buy side to maybe to pick up some assets over a period of time. We'll be looking. We bid on both Signature and pieces of Signature as well as pieces of SVB. We were not successful. There's still some stuff left, we'll see about that, see if there's something there that makes sense for us. Outside of that, John, good report on asset quality on the marine book. I, proud of you guys and what you've done. Kevin said it's your exhaustive underwriting, that has certainly paid off for this corporation, congrats on that.

Seems to be the world out there is scared to death of marine stuff. I keep asking, are we missing something? You keep producing the great numbers. Thank you for that and good report, everybody. Donna, I'm ready to go to Q&A if you're ready.

Donna Townsell
Director of Investor Relations, Home BancShares Incorporated

I think we're all ready. We'll turn it back to the operator and open it up for questions.

Operator

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, please press star followed by two. Again, to ask a question, press star one. As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your question. We will pause here briefly as questions are registered. The first question is from the line of Jon Arfstrom with RBC. You may proceed.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Hey, good afternoon, everyone.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Hi, Jon.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Hear me all right? Hey. Okay, good. Good. Good quarter. I agree.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thank you.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Good numbers. In terms of the liquidity that you lay out, you clearly have a lot of it and you're prepared for, I think, any level of deposit outflows. I'm just curious if things are settled down from your point of view, and are you starting to see some of these deposits that may have left flow back into the bank?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Yeah, some of that. You know, it... We were prepared for that. I think some people got, I never got asked. I never got one question from any customer, period. Tracy got a few, and I think Stephen got some, but overall, we didn't, I didn't feel it. I saw we're losing a little bit, but I think that's natural. You see these people offering 5+% for, on CDs. That says we borrowed all the money. When you can borrow from The Fed and the fours, that tells you something. If they're offering five, they're asking to pay me five. That means we borrowed... It means we spent all our money, we borrowed up, and now we're trying to... It doesn't matter whether we're profitable or not, but I think we're good.

I actually think we're good. We'll go through this tax time. If we get through the tax time, I think we'll be fine. From the loan perspective, we're not aggressive on loans. You remember back in 2008, 2009 and 2008 and 2009, I think you asked me a question, what do we think about loans? I said, "I don't think much about them. I don't care right now." You know, the key is to save the make sure the company's strong. That's the most important thing that we've done. And that's what we're gonna continue to do. We're not aggressive on loans. We've gotten a little tougher on the loan side. We're seeing pretty good loan demand. We're seeing some squirrely loans that are running around out there.

We don't know that we got the lines to pull up if we need it, as Brian says, but I don't know if we'll If we need it, we'll use it. We haven't borrowed a penny this year. I mean, we haven't borrowed one nickel. We got ourselves set up for it, but we haven't had to use it, and that's a blessing for us, because it's high price money. I'm pretty optimistic we may slide on through. Depends on how bad tax season is. I think that's really the point. Any comment on that?

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Okay.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Brian, anything?

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Stephen, you had a comment about how there was deposit outflows, but it was the lowest that you've seen in a while. Did I hear that correctly?

Stephen Tipton
COO, Home BancShares Incorporated

That's right. I think deposits were down about $490 through the quarter. You know, those were higher levels in Q3 and Q4 last year, just kind of on the heels of the acquisition. And Tracy mentioned, you know, through this point in April, we've bounced around, you know, in a, in a, in a positive position so far. You know, we saw a little bit of inflow in March. We actually had a couple of surprise deposits from customers of ours that had money, maybe out west that wired money in and said, you know, "We were told by our treasurer to park it at Centennial Bank." We saw a few of those instances but, you know, I think overall maybe just focus more on strength and quality instead of where the highest rate may be.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

We're not gonna solicit the big deposits.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

No.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

We've managed this thing properly where we've had the ability to cover our uninsured deposits and uncollateralized deposits. I think we're not, we're not out. We'll control loans as they come in. I'm sure a lot of people would like to put their money here. We like to have some money from everybody, maybe, but we don't. It's not our goal to end up like SVB with a lot of lumpy deposits in the bank.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, this is refreshing, the different deposits.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

We're not gonna be the highest rate. Let me tell you that, John. We're not gonna be the highest rate, but we're damn sure the safest, so.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Yep. Well, that it gets to my next question. This is a good discussion because it doesn't feel like you're that concerned about deposit outflows, which is good. I guess it's the next question where you're saying you're not gonna be the highest rate, and you're being a little bit more cautious on lending, but seeing some opportunities. How do you guys feel about the margin from here? Can you keep pushing this margin higher?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Tracy. Tracy just hung it like I hung him, held his tie up like he's being hung. You can have that one, Tracy.

Tracy French
President and CEO, Centennial Bank

It... Jon, I mean, you know, that's our goal, right? I mean, that's the fun part. Not just over the past year, but forever in this company, we always wanna try to get a little better if we can. We have to adjust and go with where the market steers us. You know, we're just making good business decisions, and right now the market's working in our favor. We haven't had we weren't in the position where we had to go out there and pay high interest rates on deposits. We've got great core customers, that's what's... If we watch the deposits every day, and not just me, it's every region out there in the market. It's just cool how we watch and pay attention to that.

We've been able to bring some stuff in. To answer your question, I'd probably say I'm always nervous about the market, but, you know, Johnny wants me to make sure we get it better. The great part about our company is everybody out there in the regions wanna do the same thing. You know, just go with the flow. Loan rates are this today, and deposit rates are this, and as long as that holds good, we'll swing. We didn't bet, you know, on the future. We thank gosh we didn't lock in a lot of the assets at 3.5% for 10 years. 'Cause I didn't have anybody doing a 0% CD for 10 years.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Right.

Tracy French
President and CEO, Centennial Bank

this week.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Okay.

Tracy French
President and CEO, Centennial Bank

$80 million dollar payoff. The loan rate was 9.845%. The prepayment penalty is $420,000. I told them we gotta get something going to replace that $80 something million at roughly 10% with a prepay.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

Okay.

Tracy French
President and CEO, Centennial Bank

Anyway, we didn't cry about the prepay. That was, they asked for different things, and we weren't gonna do that. We're not gonna stretch, so we don't stretch. We didn't stretch, and they were able to refinance. They paid us off. I can't. I thought it was fixed. I'd forgotten it was, it's floating, and I thought it was fixed at like six or seven. I said, "What was the rate on when I got paid off?" They sent it to me, and I said, "Wow, we gotta replace that pricing." Seven. Now for $446, $446 in the bank, does that not make you as a shareholder happy? I mean, come on.

Jon Arfstrom
Managing Director of US Research, RBC

All right. Well, thanks everybody. It's a good message on that. Thank you.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Arfstrom. The next question is from the line of Matt Olney with Stephens. You may proceed.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

Hey, thanks guys. Good afternoon.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thank you, Matt.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

Wanna start on the M&A side. You mentioned being opportunistic. Any color on what's in the marketplace today that you're looking at? I mean, perhaps it's too soon, but just curious about this. And then specifically within the Signature and SVB commentary that you mentioned, any more color on the types of businesses from them that you were attracted to?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

We're looking at some of their assets that they have. I don't wanna get specific here, but we're looking at some of those assets to bid on. From the M&A perspective, the problem is that most banks are loaned up, I mean, they're in the 100%. The majority of them is 100%. Let me say that. They're 100%. They're tired, they're worn out, and they're running lower capital ratios. If you mark AOCI, it's even much worse. I don't think Home is in the mood in this cycle to stretch. Donna and I looked at one, we were in Dallas a while back.

The bank wasn't in Dallas, but the bank was somewhere else, and met with the owners, and they're 108% loan to deposit, and their margin's going straight in the tank because they're out of money, and they had to pay high prices for money, and they're getting killed. The point is... I said, "Let me get this straight. You want me to pay you a premium for that?" I said, "I'm struggling why I'd want to do that, and why I'd want to take your mess that you've created and put on my balance sheet, and put my balance sheet that is not stressed under any conditions, and put my balance sheet under stress." In joking I said, "If you'll pay me $100 million, I'll take it." That didn't go over very well.

That's kind of my attitude right now. I've never seen this kind of crisis before, and it's pretty damn serious, and you see how fragile banks are. Banks are very fragile, and there's not 20 banks in the country that could take a run, I don't believe. Maybe 50, maybe 100 that could take a run tomorrow. Home BancShares can take one, but there's not many banks that could take a run. I don't know that I wanna pay somebody a premium to buy their problem. That's kind of where my stance is right now. We're doing fine. We're gonna be fine. Home BancShares will be open. Home BancShares will be operating, and Home BancShares will be profitable. I'm. You never heard that quite, that talk out of me before like that.

I think it's time to be protect the chuck wagon. I don't think you stretch. I don't think it's time to stretch. I don't think this is over, and I think it could be a while before it's over. I think we're just gonna sit here and protect the chuck wagon for a while. We'll take care of our customers. Our customers have no fear. We have the ability to continue to finance our customers. New customers will be difficult to get in the door, but we'll take care of our existing customers. They've been good to us. We'll be good to them. We'll be here to take care of their needs. I think that's the safe way to play it right now, John.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

Okay. That makes sense.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I mean, Matt, I'm sorry.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

... the commentary there.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Sorry, Matt.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

Yeah, no problem.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

That doesn't sound like-

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

Uh.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

That doesn't sound like the regular Johnny, does it?

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

On the office front, you guys gave some great details there in the press release as far as geographies and amounts and LTVs and I think you did disclose about $45 million was criticized. Yeah, which I guess is what, 4%, relatively small amount. Anything more notable in that smaller, in that $45 million, Kevin, to speak of as far as a trend or anything more notable there?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Yeah. Probably the most notable thing is that the majority of that is in the Texas market, and it is stuff that we marked, criticized in due diligence and not classified, but in OLEM. That happens a fair amount when we do due diligence on stuff that, you know, could be a four, a five, or a six, and we usually are pretty conservative and then take the next year or two to look at it closer. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of that, when we do an annual review, looks better than we thought it did at due diligence. That is the vast majority of that $45 million is in what I would call that bucket.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

Okay. Got it. That's good news.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

About 65% loan to deposit. About 65% loan to value, and most of it matures in 2023 and 2024, so we'll get to look at it this year or next year. I'm not particularly concerned about any of that.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

I guess, Kevin, just taking a step back and thinking about this office deep dive that you guys did over the last few months, I'm curious about how, you know, what you think about loss potential at Home Banc on this portfolio as it compares to a few years ago when you guys did a similar deep dive on the hospitality book back in 2020. You guys carried some larger hospitality loans a few years ago, came out with no losses. How, how would you compare this office deep dive and potential losses to what you saw back then?

Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer, Home BancShares Incorporated

Yeah, we actually looked at this portfolio around that same time. We did this same deep dive and it looks very similar to what it looked like then. I would say, and I think I said it in my remarks, that the majority of what we've put on the last year and a half, has really not been traditional office. Even though it is coded office, it's not what you would expect the ultimate disposition to be of that asset, and most of that's in the New York portfolio, in a multi-asset facility. You would look at that completely differently than you would an operating office, you know, building that's going to be an office building now and forever. I feel really good about the deep dive.

I like the fact that the majority of our balances are in our footprint and even within that footprint in two of the strongest geographies, particularly for office. I think that bodes well. I feel really good about the exposure and any potential loss for that group of loans.

Matt Olney
Managing Director, Stephens

Okay. All right, guys, that's all from me. Great report. Thanks.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thanks, Matt.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Olney. The next question is from the line of Brady Gailey with KBW. You may proceed.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

Hey, thank you. Good afternoon, guys. I wanted to start on loan growth. You know, Johnny, you mentioned a lot of your peers, you know, don't have money to lend. They're loaned up. That's not the case at Home. You guys have money to lend and relatively low loan-to-deposit ratio. Is now or is today's backdrop a time where you could, you know, see loan growth pick up for Home?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Well, I said earlier, we're gonna service our customers. We're gonna take care of our customers. Kevin is seeing some credits that from the outside, that we don't feel, he doesn't feel comfortable in doing at this point in time. I think that's probably a good time. The key is we've got some great customers who've been with us for many years, enabled us to grow this company, and the point is to take care of them. To say we won't do somebody that comes from the outside, we probably will under our terms and conditions, if we can build a long-term relationship with those people. If that's available. We're not interested in one-timers, and we're not interested in anybody that can't bring deposits.

We're interested in relationships and long-term. We built, Tracy French built a bunch, and Kevin Hester built a bunch in 2008, 2009, and 2010 when we were in that process. That worked well for us during that period of time. There's an opportunity, I mean, we'll look at about anything. If it's not the time, it is not the time, I don't think, Brady, to be aggressive. I think it's to be real conservative and take your time because I don't know... You know, here, think about this. There's gonna be opportunities come out of this, right? Where do you spend your money? You have some real opportunities to spend some money in different areas, and that could make a lot more money.

We think those opportunities, and we have the opportunity to bid on some stuff now, we think those opportunities are out there. We've chosen to take a shot at some of those and hopefully can increase profitability with those. We're just being real careful. Very, very careful. I'm just afraid this is not over. I'm just afraid this cycle's not over. Those who survive this cycle may have real opportunities. I remember 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 how well Home did, became one of the biggest buyers in the country of failed bank opportunities. Those opportunities could happen again. We're just gonna remain conservative. To say we won't do a new loan, we will. We'll just look at it, but we're not looking at M&A right now. We're not interested in M&A.

I mean, I think average multiple on banks now, they're trading about 1.20x book. I think that's about where they're trading. That sounds pretty enticing to me with us at 2x+ book, but I just don't want to buy somebody else's headaches and problems at this point in time. That doesn't sound like a conservative.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

No, that makes sense.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

That doesn't sound like the go-go Johnny Allison you've already dealt with. That's just the conservative side right now.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

That makes sense, though. Then you look at credit quality, it's still, you know, pristine at Home Banc. You know, the reserve is still 2%, which is pretty high relative to where your metrics are running. You know, do you think the reserve percentage continues to go lower here, or do you kind of draw a line in the sand and say, "Hey, considering the backdrop, we need to keep this reserve at 2%"?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I'm a 2% guy. I'm a 2% loan guy. You know, it's, I don't care what they say, I'm a 2% loan guy. It's always worked. 2% loan has always worked. They can quit that. I understand we go through all the calculations, we do all that stuff. I understand the importance of all that, and I compare. I watch that and look at that. I know 2% works, so it doesn't matter to me. I know 2% works.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

Yep. Then lastly, for me, I mean, you guys are act-. Sorry, what'd you say, Johnny?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I didn't hear that. What'd he say?

Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer, Home BancShares Incorporated

He didn't finish.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

My last question-

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Go ahead.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

... is just on the buyback. You guys have been active on the buyback. Is there any reason why that would stop, or do you think, you know, the stock's at a good value, you still buy it back here?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Well, we bought back 250,000 shares on our 10b5-1 so far because they've been hammering the stock. While I mean, they're killing all the banks, but we just think it's time to buy. When Stephen put in the 10b5-1, and we're pleased with what we're doing-

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

Mm-hmm

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

... and as we buy the stock, so. We'd bought 590,000 shares before, so we don't I mean, we've got the ability to buy more. We, you know, I say we get out for a little bit, the stock gets cheap, and we just buy it.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director, KBW

Great. Thanks, guys.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thanks, Brady.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Gailey. The next question is from Michael Rose with Raymond James. You may proceed.

Michael Rose
Managing Director, Raymond James

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Just wanted to touch on Chris Poulton's business. I would expect that in this environment, a lot of the competitors in the space are gonna pull back. Do you guys kind of see that as an opportunity for you to grow that business? I know, you know, you have some capacity there. I think the threshold is, you know, around 10% of loans. If we could just get an update there and kind of how you holistically would view this environment, because I would think that pricing power would kind of play in your hands as other people pull back. Thanks.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Well, we don't put a mic on Chris.

Chris Poulton
President of CCFG, Centennial Bank

Hey, Michael. Yeah.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I'm gonna let Chris take that and answer for himself.

Chris Poulton
President of CCFG, Centennial Bank

Yeah, Michael. Thanks, Johnny. You know, I think in theory that's true. I'm a little in Johnny's camp right now, which is I think the loan we make tomorrow is better than the loan we can make today, certainly better than the loan we could make yesterday. You know, the phone's ringing a lot and we're talking to people. We're taking care of our customers too and that. I asked my team to create a list of different ways you can say no, 'cause I was getting tired of the ways we were saying no to things. We're up to about 27 different ways to say no, and that'll probably grow. We'll start saying yes at some point, you know. And we are.

I mean, we did $200 and something million in the first quarter. We'll probably do about the same this quarter. We continue to get payoffs and paydowns. I like to see that right now too. One of the things I've been concerned about is what's exit look like. We just got paid off on one in the last week or so that was a, you know, CMBS takeout that I kind of wanted to see how that was gonna go before we kind of think about some other things. You know, if the CMBS market's there to take that out, it's a great loan and in such, that's good. If it's not, well, that was a really good loan. If it can't take that one out in the CMBS, there might not be much.

That went off well. It was good for our customer. They executed well, we'll do more with that customer. What we're probably a little more focused on, to be honest, right now is getting ready for what comes next. For the U.S., that's facilities business. That's institutional buyers and institutional lenders that are getting ready. They've raised money. They're getting ready to go buy assets, buy loans, make loans, et cetera. That's really where our focus has really probably been over the last couple of months. We've been gearing up. We're putting facilities in place with those folks, et cetera, because when they see opportunities, it's opportunities for them, it's opportunities for us. That's how we built this business, and we'll stay focused on that.

I think that's probably where I'd see a little more opportunity than, you know, just going out and finding that. We're starting to get the phone calls from people saying, "I had a deal, but my bank's not there." That's an interesting discussion sometimes, I think the facilities and backing folks that are gonna put new fresh capital in is a little more interesting.

Michael Rose
Managing Director, Raymond James

That's great color. I appreciate it, Chris. Then maybe one for Stephen Tipton. The DDA mix is at about 28%. Any thoughts around, you know, where that could potentially bottom, or do you think we've kind of seen the worst of it?

Stephen Tipton
COO, Home BancShares Incorporated

You know, I think if we go back. Pre-pandemic levels, we were, you know, we were in the I think mid-20s or so range. You know, I think in our, you know, just looking back over the last several quarters, it's drifted down, you know, kind of in step with some of the other categories on the interest-bearing side. You know, it's certainly our focus. I think as it goes, as we mentioned, you know, tax payments and some of those things may pull it down near term. You know, that's our focus and conversation with all of our bankers and presidents are on those operating balances and those, you know, real core customers, that are out there. It's certainly the focus.

Michael Rose
Managing Director, Raymond James

All right. Thanks, guys. Johnny, if you're taking, applications for that chuck wagon, let me know where I can sign up. Thanks, guys.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Hey, I wanna be one of your darts. Did you hear me?

Michael Rose
Managing Director, Raymond James

I did. I hear you. I hear you. Well, if you get cheaper, we'll see. Hope not, though.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

It won't get any cheaper.

Michael Rose
Managing Director, Raymond James

Hope not.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

All right.

Michael Rose
Managing Director, Raymond James

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Rose. The next question is from Brett Rabatin with Hovde Group. You may proceed.

Brett Rabatin
Director of Research, Hovde Group

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Wanted to start on expenses. You know, I'm not sure if all of the Happy expense savings have been pulled out, but was hoping for some color maybe on where you are on that, and if the first quarter run rates are a good level to think about going forward.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

At this point in time, for our plans on happy, we're pretty much there on what we were gonna be having in savings. I think it's a pretty good run rate. We had a little bit of a reversal in some accruals that we had in the first quarter, which was about $1.6 million. On the flip side, you know, salaries and stuff could go up because everybody will start maxing out on FICA and stuff. It's not far from the regular run rate.

Brett Rabatin
Director of Research, Hovde Group

Okay. That's helpful. Then, you know, Johnny, earlier in the conversation, you said, you know, we weren't done with this turmoil, that maybe there was more to come. A quarter ago, you were talking about people flying in planes to see you and talk about credit, and sounds like you've pulled the horns in somewhat. I've noticed that the one month T-bill is back down even lower than where it was with those failures. Can you talk maybe about what you're focused on in terms of additional potential turmoil? Is it liquidity oriented, or is it other things? Just, it sounds like you're buckled down for a recession. I was just curious if you had some thoughts on what that might look like for the industry or what you were focused on.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I think we're gonna be higher for longer. You know, the Fed cannot pivot. I don't think they can pivot. If they do, we'll be back in the seventies and with Volcker, and they'll have to come back at a later date and fix it. It does look like things are slowing down, which is positive. I think that's positive. I think that's good. There is a chance that they could hold interest rates, you know, maybe another quarter and then just pause and not do anything for a while and watch it, and that's probably the smart thing to do. You know, I think another 25 basis points could be cooked in right now. It kind of depends on what the Fed thinks as a result of what they're seeing.

You know, they just pushed rates at the fastest rate till the stick broke. I mean, they pushed it and pushed it and pushed it till it broke. That's really, sad as it is, that needed to be done because we got to stop this inflation monster, and it's not over yet. It may be coming back, it may be coming down. It certainly appears that way. I think we're gonna be higher for longer, and I think we're about in an environment here where we're gonna be for a while. Maybe 25 up, maybe flat, maybe 50 up, but I don't think any more than that. These people that the banks are in trouble will remain in trouble for a while.

They'll continue to have to pay higher and higher rates for money, they'll struggle through this process. You just got to figure out when it's about to end and when it's gonna be over, maybe at that point in time, we could get more aggressive on the acquisition side. To think about Home, maybe the only bank in the country that bet the way we bet on rates the way we bet, to go out and buy somebody today that didn't do that spent their money and leveraged the hell out of their balance sheet, for us to buy them, I mean, of course, they want a premium, right? They don't sell it much premium. The point is, I'm not willing to leverage my balance sheet in this crisis right now.

I've never seen a liquidity crisis. This is my first time to really see one. I mean, Bunny and I talked about earlier, we did see some semblance of it back in the 1970s when every S&L went broke. I'm surprised the credit unions are hanging in. I don't know how those credit unions are hanging in today. You know, they did low rate loans, I guarantee you they're paying higher rates than what their loan book is, and that's what broke all the savings and loans. I wouldn't be surprised it doesn't break a bunch of credit unions. predicting that. I'm just saying it certainly appears that when you look the way things are lined up.

I mean, you see some banks out there, I know some banks out there that are really, really tight right now and really struggling. It's gonna be years before they unwind. I mean, they're not going to, they're not going to solve this deal next week, next month. They've got two or three, four years of this maybe as strong as four. Depends on how long. I remember the guys walking in doing 3.70 fixed for 10, told Tracy, "Now that's the number," and that worked forever, right? What did they tell us? Wanted to sell their bank to us. I'd hate to look at his book today, you know, because he's paying 4.5%, 5%, 5.5% for money.

I think it, I think it's cautious times, and I think just be smart and be careful because Home has. I don't know what that opportunity is yet. I don't know where it is, but I believe it's there, and I believe Home has the opportunity and the liquidity and the ability to step up and buy something that makes some sense for them, be it pieces of assets or be it another financial institution. How big do you want to buy, and how much risk will you take when you do that, and what does it do to our liquidity at that point in time? Those would be the questions. I can't. That's about as good as I can do. I don't know where it is, but I'll know it when I see it. Does that make sense?

Brett Rabatin
Director of Research, Hovde Group

Yeah, no, that's that's good color. I appreciate it, Johnny.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

We've been pretty good at knowing it when we see it. Thank you for that, Brett.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Rabatin. The last question is from the line of Brian Martin with Janney. You may proceed.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Maybe just a couple things just at the end.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Afternoon.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Just the, on the, you know, I guess within the last quarter, in the December quarter, I'm not sure where it stands now, but just kind of the level of substandard loans or kind of classified loans. Can you give any color? It looked like they increased a little bit at year-end and just kind of wondering where that trend is today and just, you know, in conjunction with kind of the dive you did on real estate, you know, in the, in the office book.

Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer, Home BancShares Incorporated

Hey, this is Kevin. Yeah, we had a little bit of an increase at year-end. There was one pretty large relationship that the timing of the review just came at a bad time for them, and things have turned back around for them. They're in the energy business, and time has turned back around for them. I would expect that either this quarter or next, we'll probably see them come out of the classification. Other than that, I've not seen a lot of movement downward.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Okay. No real change from, you know, from that fourth quarter level to today? Not a whole lot on either the criticized or classified levels from that base?

Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer, Home BancShares Incorporated

Not materially, no.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Yeah. Okay. All right. How about I know you talked a lot about M&A, just the opportunities, but how about just with some of these banks that are struggling out there, Johnny, I guess, are lift outs a possibility? You know, I know you're looking at the FDIC or just the banks that failed, but outside of that, just lift outs of people as opposed to acquisitions. Is that something that's realistic to think about or probably not?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I don't like that. I'm not a lift out guy. I don't like lift outs. I don't like to be lifted out. I don't like that stuff. I mean, I think it's chicken, you can figure out the rest of it, but I-

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

I got you.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

... you train somebody, you bring them in, you teach them, you give them lots of business, and suddenly they go home and decide they're a hero, and they're gonna give them a $100,000 signing bonus, and they're gonna walk out on you. I'm not, you know, I'm not one. We had that happen to us, as you know, in West Texas, as you saw what happened to us out there with those guys. That has not worked out for those people. Let me explain that. That has not worked out very well. I think, I don't know if what I got back is totally correct or not, but I understand nearly every one of those people that left are, that we have found that may have moved some information improperly, are unemployed now. I don't know how well that works out, really. It is.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Yeah.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I think they've closed branches, and those people are gone. A lot of those people are gone, so what they did was-

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Gotcha

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

... was not right. I don't want that. I don't do that to other people. I don't want them doing it to me, so.

Kevin Hester
Chief Lending Officer, Home BancShares Incorporated

Hey, Johnny, I'll remind you, we actually talked to a group a few months ago and really liked them. I think it'd been a great opportunity, and we just put it on hold and passed for now because it makes sense, as Johnny said, we're gonna take care of our customers and take care of new opportunities that are, you know, gonna be significant relationships. That's more important to us right now than the lifting out team.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

You know...

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Yeah.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Kevin's exactly right, and I was at a bank conference shortly thereafter, and I saw that CEO. I, you know, I just thought, you know, here I am talking to his people behind his back, and I wouldn't want somebody doing that to me. I just really felt bad. If I'd hired him, this guy, I don't know how I would have, how I felt about looking him in the eye. Some people have no conscience, and they're able to do what they wanna do. I mean, ServisFirst mistreated us, what they did, and they paid for it. That's their style of operation. That just happens not to be ours.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Gotcha. That's helpful. Maybe just one for Stephen, I guess. Stephen, you know, I guess I know you gave some ending points for the rates. Where did the margin end in March? You know, kind of end of period and just kind of, you know, with where, with Johnny's kind of alluding to as far as maybe one more hike and stopping. Kind of wondering, feels like we're kind of near a peak on the margin. Wondering if that's, you know, kind of consistent with how you're thinking about it. I understand that the thought you want to take it higher and loan yields are going higher, just trying to understand where it ended and then just, you know, maybe if we are ending the tightening cycle here.

Stephen Tipton
COO, Home BancShares Incorporated

Sure. We ended March at 4.40 on the NIM. I think there may have been a little bit of event income in there, but it was fairly consistent with where the quarter averaged. You know, I'd echo Tracy's comments. I mean, it's everybody's focus around here every day. You know, if we see rates continue to go up, you know, our ALCO model shows that we benefit, you know, slightly from another, you know, I don't know if we get another 100 from here, but as rates go up, that we still benefit slightly. You know, like to think that with the events over the last month that, you know, the world focuses on strength and flight to quality maybe instead of where the highest interest rate might be.

You know, that's our focus. We've got, you know, the investment portfolio cash flows come in. We've got variable component to that. We've got the loan portfolio that'll move as either as rates go up or as loans mature and have the opportunity to reprice. Whether or not we, you know, see rates go and how far we'll continue to, you know, have the opportunity on the asset side to offset what we have to do on deposits.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Gotcha. You said.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I suspect there'll be lots of people looking around for opportunities with different banks in the future because so many of these banks are loaned up. If they're on a commission scale, they're gonna struggle for a period of time because as some of the lenders have told our lenders, their bank said, "We're out of the lending business. We're totally out of the lending business." That hurts some of those lenders, I'm sure, or the income of some of those lenders. You may see some of that moving around.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Yeah, that's true. Stephen, just the deposit beta, kind of the, you know, where you think, you know, could you give any sense on kind of where you think that may end the year, you know, as you kind of get through the next couple quarters? Kind of the cumulative beta all in?

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

No, I mean, I think we've been in the 50% range each of the, you know, this past quarter and, in Q4. You know, absent something, you know, changing on the funding side, I think that's where we would target that to be. The key is can we outrun the deposit costs?

Stephen Tipton
COO, Home BancShares Incorporated

Yeah.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Yep.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

We've been fairly successful with outrunning the deposit costs. The daily report shows that we're a little behind shortly, a little behind this month. Overall, the last quarter was fairly, we won some and lost some on different days, I guess it'd be. Overall, we won. Hopefully we can hold that together.

Brian Martin
Director and Equity Analyst, Janney

Yep. Well, thank you for taking the questions, and thanks for all of the added disclosure on on the office book and the liquidity. It's very helpful. Definitely a standout.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We have one additional question from the line of Stephen Scouton with Piper Sandler. You may proceed.

Stephen Scouten
Managing Director, Piper Sandler

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Sorry I hopped on a little late. I did wanna ask what you're hearing from regulators currently, if this hasn't been covered. You know, I just remember when you guys crossed through 10 billion in assets and felt like you were required to add people you probably didn't need at the time. I'm just kinda wondering if you think those sort of, you know, incremental oversights and headcount additions might get pushed down due to all of this that's transpired as well.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

Stephen, I think it could get pushed up. You know, I think that I worry about new regulations coming down on the banks as a result of SVB and Signature. That wasn't what we needed. That's not what we need. We just need the regulations to be enforced. I can promise you one thing, that wouldn't have happened out of St. Louis with the St. Louis region. That wouldn't have happened with our regulators, what happened in California. That would have not happened here. Our regulators are on top of the game. They do a great job. We have a great relationship with them. They keep us in line, and we stay in line.

I think if you want to throw stones at somewhere, I think that may have been somebody else's responsibility that was not properly tending the store, 'cause I can promise you one thing, as close as St. Louis stays with us on what we're doing, that would've never happened here. Arkansas too, I mean, the Arkansas State Bank Department, good operators. They keep us, and we don't get too far out of line ever. I think that was a mistake. I fear they're gonna come down with some more regulations and more and more and more and think that'll fix it.

I think that was a lapse in judgment in those liberal communities out there that... I mean, some of that stuff didn't look very good. They only had one guy, I think, on the bank board that appeared to have lots of bank experience. That was a former member of The Fed, I think. They just didn't pay attention. To me, they didn't pay attention. It was a mismanagement of the balance sheet, and it lasted two days, and it's over. Bam, that's how fragile that thing was. That gets your attention as a banker and as a large shareholder in a financial institution when you see one go bam, it blows up in 48 hours. Tells you it's time to be conservative.

Stephen Scouten
Managing Director, Piper Sandler

Yep, for sure. Well, like we discussed, no bank is really built to withstand a bank run. That's kinda, yeah, you gotta prevent that in the first place, I suppose so. Congratulations on a great quarter. You know, one of the few green tickers on my screen right now. The market appears to agree that you're in that catbird seat, so well done.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

All right. Well, thank you very much for your support. Great report. Thank you, my friend.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Scouten. That concludes the question and answer session. I will turn the call back over to Mr. Allison for any closing remarks.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

I think we've said it all. I don't think we have anything else to say today. I think we've said it all. We've had our shareholders meeting today, we move from there to our conference call, we're in line for our board meeting that starts 10 minutes ago?

Operator

That's right.

John Allison
Chairman, Home BancShares Incorporated

It starts 10 minutes ago. Look forward to talking to y'all in 90 days, and thanks for everybody's support.

Operator

That concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.

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