Quarterly income up 57.7% for Bank of the Ozarks

Bank of the Ozarks kept its profitable winning streak going with first quarter earnings of 47 cents per share, easily besting year ago results and Wall Street expectations of 42 cents per share, the company announced after the close of market on Monday.

For the quarter ended March 31, the Little Rock regional bank reported earnings of 47 cents per jump, up 38.2% from 34 cents per share for the first quarter of 2014 on net income for the quarter of $39.9 million – more than 50% higher than last year’s comparable net quarterly income of $25.3 million.

The bank’s first quarter results included $4.8 million from tax-exempt income insurance benefits and sales of investment securities, which were partially offset by $4.5 million for prepayment penalties related to a federal loan advance and administrative expenses. Those one-time items, however, only added a penny to the company’s quarterly earnings results, bank officials said.

That put the Arkansas bank five cents better than Wall Street’s forecast of 42 cents per share, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Analysts’ estimates do not include special or one-time items.

The highlight of the Arkansas regional bank’s first quarter was the completion of its acquisition of Intervest Bancshares Corp., a publicly traded banking group based in downtown New York City with operations across the East Coast state as well as six banking locations in Florida. During 2014, the Little Rock banking holding company also completed its acquisitions of Texas-based Bancshares Inc. in March and Arkansas-based Summit Bancorp, Inc. in May.

“This was very good growth considering the seasonal headwinds we typically experience in the first quarter,” Bank of the Ozark Chairman and CEO George Gleason said, adding that the bank’s non-purchased loans and leases grew $331 million, and its unfunded balance of closed loans grew to $445 million.

Bank of the Ozarks completed a 2-for-1 stock split, in the form of a stock dividend on June 23, 2014, by issuing one share of common stock to shareholders for each share of such stock outstanding on June 13, 2014.

At the close of trading Monday, Bank of the Ozarks’ shares (NASDAQ: OZRK) closed at $37.63, down three cents as more than 678,000 shares traded hands. The fast-growing Arkansas bank is just off its 52-week high of $38.22.