Sandy Spring Bancorp Reports Net Income of $13.3 Million for the Fourth Quarter and Record Annual Earnings of $48.3 Million
OLNEY, Md., Jan. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc., (Nasdaq:SASR) the parent company of Sandy Spring Bank, today reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2016 of $13.3 million ($0.55 per diluted share) compared to net income of $12.8 million ($0.52 per diluted share) for the fourth quarter of 2015 and net income of $13.5 million ($0.56 per diluted share) for the third quarter of 2016.
Net income for the year ended December 31, 2016, was $48.3 million ($2.00 per diluted share) compared to net income of $45.4 million ($1.84 per diluted share) for the prior year.
“Our continued ability to meet the needs of our clients is reflected in our record performance this year. Strong loan growth, combined with an improved net interest margin, were the primary drivers to our profitability for both the fourth quarter and full year. This record performance enabled us to increase our dividend to its highest level ever and supported our repurchase of $13.3 million of the Company’s shares during the year. Shareholders also benefited from a 48% increase in our stock price over the year,” said Daniel J. Schrider, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Fourth Quarter Highlights:
- Total loans increased 12% compared to the fourth quarter of 2015 and 4% compared to the third quarter of 2016. These increases were driven primarily by year-over-year growth of 17% in the commercial loan portfolio.
- The net interest margin improved to 3.52% for the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to 3.45% for the fourth quarter of 2015 and 3.50% for the third quarter of 2016.
- Pre-tax, pre-provision income increased 25% compared with the fourth quarter of 2015.
- The Non-GAAP efficiency ratio was 57.54% for the current quarter as compared to 63.08% for the fourth quarter of 2015 and 56.33% for the third quarter of 2016.
- Return on equity increased to 9.92% for the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to 9.73% for the fourth quarter of 2015 and decreased compared to 10.11% for the third quarter of 2016.