CU Bancorp 1Q Profit Rises 53.8%

CU Bancorp

reported 53.8% jump in net income available to its shareholders to $6.0 million in the first quarter from $3.9 million in the previous year quarter. On a per share basis, earnings also jumped to $0.35 a share from $0.23 a share in the comparable period. This was in line with the Street analysts' estimations of $0.35 a share. CU Bancorp's total interest income advanced 13.75% to $23.478 million from $20.64 million, while non-interest income grew 8.1% to $2.82 million from $2.61 million in the previous year quarter. Street estimated the company to generate $26.17 million revenue. The company's Chairman and CEO, David Rainer, said that "The first quarter of 2016 was a very strong quarter for CUB, with record earnings and an increase in earnings per share of 52% over the prior year and 17% over the prior quarter. Revenues benefitted from higher core net interest income, which increased nearly 5% on a linked-quarter basis or 19% annualized, as well as non-interest income, including the second-highest quarterly gain on sale of SBA loans in the Company's history. Our consistent growth in revenues, combined with operating expenses that have been essentially flat for five consecutive quarters, has improved our efficiency ratio to 58% from 64% in the year-ago period. Rainer added that "Our return on tangible common equity and return on average assets of 10.75% and 0.89%, respectively, increased in both year-over-year and linked-quarter periods. The strong pipeline that we indicated in our fourth quarter earnings release led to net organic loan growth of $90 million—the highest for a first quarter in the Company's history. Currently, the second quarter loan pipeline continues to be strong." Shares of the company traded down by 0.13% on Tuesday.