Home Savings reports 1Q earnings

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

United Community Financial Corp., parent company of Youngstown-based Home Savings and Loan Co. announced a drop in first-quarter earnings Tuesday.

The bank reported net income for the quarter that ended March 31 totaled $3.3 million, or $0.069 per diluted common share, compared with $3.7 million, or $0.074 per diluted common share for the quarter ending March 31, 2015.

“We are seeing excellent opportunities, particularly in our commercial- and residential-mortgage business,” said Gary M. Small, president and chief executive officer. “We delivered strong loan growth, excellent revenue growth and focused expense management. For the quarter, we saw positive operating leverage with revenue up over 9 percent while expenses were down 1.7 percent compared with the first quarter of 2015.”

Total loans, including loans held for sale, increased $195.5 million, or 16.3 percent to $1.4 billion at March 31 this year compared with March 31, 2015.

Growth of the commercial-loan portfolio was the primary driver. Commercial-loan production of $73.8 million for the first quarter was about double the pace of the first quarter of 2015, while commercial-loan balances grew slightly more than 10 percent for the quarter and more than 50 percent compared with the first quarter of 2015.

Residential loans, including residential loans held for sale, grew at a measured pace, increasing $51.5 million at March 31 this year compared with March 31, 2015.

The bank recognized a provision for loan losses expense of $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2016, compared with a recovery of $184,000 in the first quarter of 2015.

Noninterest income was $4.7 million in the first quarter of 2016 compared with $4.1 million in the first quarter of 2015.

Noninterest expense was $12.5 million for the first quarter of 2016, which represented a decrease of $217,000, or 1.7 percent, from the same quarter last year.

The board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.025 per common share payable May 13 to shareholders of record at the close of business May 3.