City Holding Company (“Company” or “City”) (NASDAQ:CHCO), a $5.9 billion bank holding company headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia, today announced quarterly net income of $22.1 million and diluted earnings of $1.41 per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2021. For the second quarter of 2021, the Company achieved a return on assets of 1.49% and a return on tangible equity of 15.2%.

Charles R. (“Skip”) Hageboeck, the President and Chief Executive Officer of City, commented: “As the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to diminish and economic activity continues to rebound to customary levels, City’s financial performance also trended upward in the second quarter of 2021. Net interest income increased $0.4 million from the quarter ended March 31, 2021 and noninterest income improved significantly ($2.8 million or 19.3%) as compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2020. Net interest income improved as a portion of our excess liquidity was used to purchase investment securities and improve interest income and interest bearing deposits continue to migrate to lower rate or noninterest-bearing deposit options. Debit card usage by our customers continued to hit new highs in the second quarter of 2021 as we saw our bankcard revenues increase almost 23% compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2020.”

“As the economic outlook improved during the second quarter of 2021 and unemployment forecasts improved, City was able to release $2.0 million of its allowance for credit losses at June 30, 2021. Asset quality remains impeccable with nonperforming assets at historical low levels and both past dues and troubled debt restructurings are below December 31, 2020 levels. Loan deferrals have also declined to very low levels at June 30, 2021 with commercial loan deferrals at $92 million, or 5% of total commercial balances. Hotel and lodging customers comprise essentially all of these deferrals and based on current occupancy levels, we expect these deferrals to continue to decline. Residential mortgages deferrals are now less than 0.1% of total residential real estate balances at June 30, 2021.”

“While loan growth continues to be difficult, we were able to grow commercial loan balances, net of government-sponsored Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans administered by the Small Business Administration (“SBA”), approximately 2.5% on an annualized basis during the second quarter of 2021. As of June 30, 2021, approximately $50 million of PPP loans were outstanding with 95% of the PPP loans originated in 2020 having been forgiven.”

Net Interest Income

The Company’s net interest income increased from $37.5 million during the first quarter of 2021 to $37.9 million during the second quarter of 2021. During the second quarter of 2021, the Company’s tax equivalent net interest income increased $0.4 million, or 1.0%, from $37.9 million for the first quarter of 2021 to $38.3 million for the second quarter of 2021. Lower rates paid on deposits (11 basis points) and lower time deposit balances ($54.2 million) increased net interest income by $0.7 million and $0.1 million, respectively. Additionally, primarily on the strength of higher balances ($105.5 million), investment securities contributed $0.7 million in additional net interest income as compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2021. These increases were partially offset by lower loan balances ($44.6 million) and decreased loan yields (11 basis points) that decreased net interest income by $0.6 million and $0.4 million, respectively. The Company’s reported net interest margin decreased from 2.91% for the first quarter of 2021 to 2.81% for the second quarter of 2021. Excluding the favorable impact of the accretion from fair value adjustments, the net interest margin would have been 2.76% for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and 2.87% for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.

Credit Quality

The Company’s ratio of nonperforming assets to total loans and other real estate owned decreased from 0.39% at March 31, 2021 to 0.32% at June 30, 2021. Total nonperforming assets decreased from $14.0 million at March 31, 2021 to $11.4 million at June 30, 2021. Total past due loans increased from $6.6 million, or 0.19% of total loans outstanding, at March 31, 2021 to $7.6 million, or 0.22% of total loans outstanding, at June 30, 2021.

As a result of the Company’s quarterly analysis of the adequacy of the allowance for credit losses (“ACL”), the Company recorded a recovery of credit losses of $2.0 million in the second quarter of 2021, compared to a provision for credit losses of $1.3 million for the comparable period in 2020 and a recovery of credit losses of $0.4 million for the first quarter of 2021. The determination of the Company’s allowance for credit losses is largely dependent on expected unemployment ranges. Due to improvements in the outlook for unemployment ranges utilized by the Company and partial adjustments to other qualitative and other factors, the Company partially recovered a portion of the provision for credit losses incurred in the quarter ended March 31, 2020.

Non-interest Income

Non-interest income was $17.4 million for the second quarter of 2021 as compared to $14.6 million for the second quarter of 2020. During the second quarter of 2021, the Company reported $0.4 million of unrealized fair value gains on the Company’s equity securities compared to $0.2 million of unrealized fair value gains on the Company’s equity securities in the second quarter of 2020. Exclusive of these gains, non-interest income increased from $14.4 million for the second quarter of 2020 to $17.0 million for the second quarter of 2021. This increase was primarily due to higher bankcard revenue ($1.3 million, or 22.6%) and service charges ($1.0 million, or 19.2%). For the second consecutive quarter, bankcard revenues of $7.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 established a new quarterly high for the Company as customer spending via their debit cards continued to increase.

Non-interest Expenses

Non-interest expenses increased $1.1 million (3.9%), from $28.5 million in the second quarter of 2020 to $29.6 million in the second quarter of 2021. This increase was largely due to increased salary and employee benefits of $0.7 million, bankcard expenses of $0.2 million, and FDIC insurance expense of $0.2 million. Salary and employee benefits increased due to an uptick in health insurance and customary salary increases. Bankcard expenses increased due to higher activity, while the increase in FDIC insurance expense reflects a credit utilized in the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

Balance Sheet Trends

Loans decreased $17.3 million from March 31, 2021 to June 30, 2021, to $3.53 billion. PPP loans decreased $13.3 million from March 31, 2021, as loans forgiven of $21 million were partially offset by the Company’s participation in the second round of the PPP lending. Excluding outstanding PPP loans (included in the commercial and industrial loan category), total loans decreased $4.3 million, (0.1%), from March 31, 2021 to $3.48 billion at June 30, 2021. Residential real estate loans decreased $11.8 million (0.8%); home equity loans decreased $2.4 million (1.8%); and consumer loans decreased $2.0 million (4.3%). These decreases were partially offset by increases in commercial real estate loans ($10.6 million or 0.7%) and commercial and industrial loans ($0.4 million or 0.1%) (excluding PPP loans).

Total average depository balances increased $187.6 million, or 4.0%, from the quarter ended March 31, 2021 to the quarter ended June 30, 2021. Average noninterest-bearing demand deposit balances increased $113.4 million, average savings deposit balances increased $66.8 million, and average interest-bearing demand deposit balances increased $61.6 million. We believe that these increases were largely attributable to the third round of Economic Impact Payments as part of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (approximately $180 million received late in the quarter ended March 31, 2021) and proceeds from PPP loans (approximately $50 million). These increases were partially offset by a decrease in time deposit balances of $54.2 million.

Income Tax Expense

The Company’s effective income tax rate for the second quarter of 2021 was 20.3% compared to 19.5% for the year ended December 31, 2020, and 20.6% for the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

Capitalization and Liquidity

The Company’s loan to deposit ratio was 73.5% and the loan to asset ratio was 59.8% at June 30, 2021. The Company maintained investment securities totaling 23.1% of assets as of the same date. The Company’s deposit mix is weighted heavily toward checking and saving accounts, which fund 61.8% of assets at June 30, 2021. Time deposits fund 19.5% of assets at June 30, 2021, but very few of these deposits are in accounts that have balances of more than $250,000, reflecting the core retail orientation of the Company.

The Company continues to be strongly capitalized with tangible equity of $578 million at June 30, 2021. Due primarily to the influx of deposits and unrealized security losses during the six months ended June 30, 2021, the Company’s tangible equity ratio decreased modestly from 10.3% at December 31, 2020 to 10.0% at June 30, 2021. At June 30, 2021, City National Bank’s Leverage Ratio was 8.80%, its Common Equity Tier I ratio was 14.82%, its Tier I Capital ratio was 14.82%, and its Total Risk-Based Capital ratio was 15.30%. These regulatory capital ratios are significantly above levels required to be considered “well capitalized,” which is the highest possible regulatory designation.

On June 30, 2021, the Board of Directors of the Company approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.58 per share payable July 30, 2021, to shareholders of record as of July 15, 2021. During the quarter ended June 30, 2021, the Company repurchased 217,000 common shares at a weighted average price of $78.75 per share as part of a one million share repurchase plan authorized by the Board of Directors in March 2021. As of June 30, 2021, the Company could repurchase 783,000 additional shares under the current program.

City Holding Company is the parent company of City National Bank of West Virginia. City National Bank operates 94 branches across West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Ohio.

Forward-Looking Information

• This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that are included pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements express only management’s beliefs regarding future results or events and are subject to inherent uncertainty, risks, and changes in circumstances, many of which are outside of management’s control. Uncertainty, risks, changes in circumstances and other factors could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to those set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 under “ITEM 1A Risk Factors” and the following: (1) general economic conditions, especially in the communities and markets in which we conduct our business; (2) the uncertainties on the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which will depend on several factors, including the scope and duration of the pandemic, its continued influence on financial markets, the effectiveness of the Company’s work from home arrangements and staffing levels in operational facilities, the impact of market participants on which the Company relies and actions taken by governmental authorities and other third parties in response to the pandemic; (3) credit risk, including risk that negative credit quality trends may lead to a deterioration of asset quality, risk that our allowance for loan losses may not be sufficient to absorb actual losses in our loan portfolio, and risk from concentrations in our loan portfolio; (4) changes in the real estate market, including the value of collateral securing portions of our loan portfolio; (5) changes in the interest rate environment; (6) operational risk, including cybersecurity risk and risk of fraud, data processing system failures, and network breaches; (7) changes in technology and increased competition, including competition from non-bank financial institutions; (8) changes in consumer preferences, spending and borrowing habits, demand for our products and services, and customers’ performance and creditworthiness; (9) difficulty growing loan and deposit balances; (10) our ability to effectively execute our business plan, including with respect to future acquisitions; (11) changes in regulations, laws, taxes, government policies, monetary policies and accounting policies affecting bank holding companies and their subsidiaries; (12) deterioration in the financial condition of the U.S. banking system may impact the valuations of investments the Company has made in the securities of other financial institutions; (13) regulatory enforcement actions and adverse legal actions; (14) difficulty attracting and retaining key employees; (15) other economic, competitive, technological, operational, governmental, regulatory, and market factors affecting our operations. Forward-looking statements made herein reflect management's expectations as of the date such statements are made. Such information is provided to assist stockholders and potential investors in understanding current and anticipated financial operations of the Company and is included pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date such statements are made. Further, the Company is required to evaluate subsequent events through the filing of its June 30, 2021 Form 10-Q. The Company will continue to evaluate the impact of any subsequent events on the preliminary June 30, 2021 results and will adjust the amounts if necessary.