CVB Financial (CVBF) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• President & Chief Executive Officer — David Brager
• Chief Financial Officer — E. Nicholson
• [Executive, Heritage Bank of Commerce Integration] — Clay [surname not provided]

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

TAKEAWAYS

• Net Earnings -- $51 million or $0.38 per share for the first quarter of 2026, compared to $51.1 million or $0.36 per share in the prior year quarter, and down from $55 million, or $0.40 per share, in the prior quarter.
• Pretax Pre-Provision Income -- $71.6 million, up $4 million, or 6%, from the comparable prior-year quarter.
• Net Interest Margin -- 3.44%, a 13 basis point increase year over year, resulting from a 7 basis point rise in earning asset yields and a 7 basis point decrease in cost of funds.
• Loan Volume -- Total loans stood at $8.64 billion, increasing by $280 million, or 3.3%, year over year, but declining sequentially by $56 million with quarter-end seasonal line usage drop in dairy, livestock, and agribusiness loans.
• Loan Originations -- Originations in the quarter were approximately 90% higher than one year prior and 15% above the previous quarter, with new loan origination yields averaging about 6% (down 25 basis points sequentially).
• Deposit and Customer Repurchase Agreement Growth -- Average balances increased by $288 million, or 2.4%, year over year, though noninterest-bearing deposits declined by $112 million year over year and by $107 million sequentially.
• Net Recoveries/Nonperforming Loans -- Net recoveries were $9,000 compared to $325,000 in the previous quarter, while nonperforming loans rose by $1.5 million to $6.1 million; this represented 0.07% of total loans, mainly due to the downgrade of a single C&I credit with a $2.9 million reserve established.
• Allowance for Credit Losses -- $80.2 million at quarter-end, an increase from $77 million at year-end, primarily because of new specific reserves.
• Classified Loans -- $83.1 million, up from $52.7 million sequentially but below $94.2 million year over year; as a percent of total loans, this figure remained under 1%.
• Net Interest Income -- $117.8 million, down from $122.7 million in the prior quarter, but up from $110.4 million one year ago, driven by a $7.4 million (7%) increase year over year.
• Interest Income Fluctuations -- Decreased sequentially by $6.9 million, attributed to two fewer calendar days, a reduction in average earning assets, and the absence of $3.2 million in nonaccrued interest collected the prior quarter.
• Interest Expense -- Fell to $31.3 million, down from $33.3 million sequentially and $32.6 million year over year, with cost of funds improving to 97 basis points.
• Noninterest Income -- $14.3 million this quarter, up $3.1 million sequentially but down $1.9 million year over year, affected by security sale losses in Q4 2025 and a gain on sale in Q1 2025, plus a $1.1 million rise in bank-owned life insurance income this quarter.
• Efficiency Ratio -- 45.8%, improving from 46.3% in the prior quarter and 46.7% year over year, with core operating expense essentially flat after adjusting for acquisition and reserve costs.
• Capital & Tangible Book Value -- Tangible common equity ratio of 10.5%, common equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 16.3%, and tangible book value per share increased 9% year over year to $11.42.
• Dividend History -- The company declared its 146th consecutive quarterly dividend ($0.20 per share).
• Acquisition Integration -- Executive management described the integration of Heritage Bank of Commerce as progressing smoothly, emphasizing new leadership team involvement and the strategic significance for the company.
• Noninterest Expense -- $60.6 million this quarter, including $1.1 million in merger-related expenses and $500,000 provision for off-balance sheet reserves; excluding these, noninterest expense as a percent of average assets was 1.55%.
• Investment Securities Portfolio -- $4.8 billion total portfolio, with $2.59 billion available-for-sale and $2.25 billion held to maturity; unrealized losses on AFS securities increased modestly by $2 million to $310 million.

SUMMARY

CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) completed its largest acquisition to date with the Heritage Bank of Commerce merger, marking a strategic expansion into the Bay Area and introducing a new leadership layer. Management stated that integration priorities focus on acclimating employees, retaining customer relationships, and capitalizing on increased lending capacity through the merger. They highlighted loan origination pipelines as "relatively strong," with commercial real estate and investor loans showing heightened activity, though competition remains intense in both pricing and credit quality. Company guidance on capital deployment—including share buybacks and further optimization of the balance sheet—remains deferred until integration progresses further, with management indicating further clarity in subsequent quarters.

• Brager said, "if this loan demand remains and we're continuing to book what we've been booking, I think that's a big tailwind for us as we keep going through the year," underscoring optimism for continued loan generation.
• E. Nicholson confirmed, "No, we do expect [the single-family mortgage pools of Heritage] to be off the balance sheet by the end of the quarter," providing explicit timing for asset disposition.
• The integration process is described by management as ongoing, with cultural assimilation and operational training for new employees named as immediate tasks.
• Credit issues in C&I were explained as isolated, with "very good collateral positions" and no indication of systemic credit deterioration, according to Brager.
• Management stated, "it will be noisy in Q2, a little bit more noise in Q3," signaling transition-related volatility in near-term results due to acquisition effects.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Pretax Pre-Provision Income: A measure of a bank's core earnings before taxes and loan loss provisions, often used to assess operating leverage.
• Allowance for Credit Losses: Balance sheet reserve set aside for estimated loan losses, factoring current expected credit losses (CECL methodology).
• Noninterest Expense: Costs not tied to interest payments or lending operations, such as salaries, IT, regulatory assessments, and merger expenses.
• Classified Loans: Loans designated as exhibiting weaknesses per regulatory risk classifications, but not yet in default or nonaccrual status.
• Efficiency Ratio: Noninterest expense as a percentage of net revenue, tracking operational cost discipline in banking.

Full Conference Call Transcript

David Brager: Thank you, Allen. Good morning, everyone. For the first quarter of 2026, we reported net earnings of $51 million or $0.38 per share, representing our 196th consecutive quarter of profitability, which is every quarter for 49 years. We previously declared a $0.20 per share dividend for the first quarter of 2026, representing our 146th consecutive quarter of paying a cash dividend to our shareholders. We produced a return on average tangible common equity of 13.4% and a return on average assets of 1.33% for the first quarter of 2026.

Our net earnings of $51 million or $0.38 per share compared with $55 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 or $0.40 per share and $51.1 million or $0.36 per share for the prior year quarter. Results of the first quarter of 2026 reflects solid growth year-over-year across several financial metrics, including pretax pre-provision income growth, net interest margin expansion, loan growth and growth in deposits and customer repurchase agreements. Pretax pre-provision income grew by $4 million or 6% over the first quarter of 2025.

Our net interest margin expanded by 13 basis points over the prior year quarter to 3.44% as our earning asset yields increased by 7 basis points, while our cost of funds decreased by 7 basis points. Average loans grew by $157 million or approximately 2% from the first quarter of 2025. We also increased our average total deposits and customer repurchase agreements by $288 million or 2.4% from the first quarter of 2025. Now let's discuss loans further. Total loans at March 31, 2026, were $8.64 billion, a $280 million or 3.3% increase from the end of the first quarter of 2025.

This increase was driven primarily by growth in commercial real estate loans of $141 million, a $62 million increase in dairy and livestock and agribusiness loans and a $43 million increase in construction loans. We also had $34 million of growth in SBA 504 loans and C&I loan outstandings increased by $10 million over the prior year. Total loans declined by $56 million from the end of 2025 as dairy and livestock and agribusiness loans declined by $117 million due to the seasonal peak and line usage that occurs every calendar year-end. The seasonal decline is evident by the decrease in line utilization rate from 78% at the end of 2025 to 69% at March 31, 2026.

C&I loans decreased quarter-over-quarter by $21 million as line utilization decreased from 32% at the end of 2025 to 30% at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Partially offsetting the decline in line usage from the end of 2025 was commercial real estate loan growth of $57 million, SBA 504 loan growth of $13 million and construction loans increasing by $22 million. Loan originations have started off the year at a strong pace as originations for the first quarter of 2026 were approximately 90% higher than the first quarter of 2025 and 15% higher than the fourth quarter of 2025. Our loan pipelines remain relatively strong, although rate competition for high-quality loans continues to be intense.

C&I loan originations have stayed relatively consistent over the past 5 quarters, but commercial real estate loan originations have been strengthening. Loan originations in the first quarter had average yields of approximately 6%, which was roughly 25 basis points lower than the prior quarter. Our average loan yield was 5.32% for the first quarter of 2026, compared to 5.47% for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 5.22% for the first quarter of 2025. During the fourth quarter of 2025, we collected $3.2 million of interest on a nonperforming loans. Excluding this additional interest income, our loan yield would have been 5.32% for the fourth quarter of 2025.

We experienced $9,000 of net recoveries during the first quarter of 2026 compared to $325,000 of net recoveries for the fourth quarter of 2025. Total nonperforming loans increased by $1.5 million to $6.1 million at March 31, 2026, which represents 0.07% of total loans. The increase is primarily due to the downgrade of a $2.9 million C&I loan for which we established a specific reserve in our allowance for credit losses. Classified loans were $83.1 million at March 31, 2026, compared to $52.7 million at December 31, 2025, and $94.2 million at March 31, 2025. Classified loans as a percentage of total loans were less than 1% at March 31, 2026. Now on to deposits.

Our average total deposits and customer repurchase agreements for the first quarter of 2026 were $12.5 billion, which compares to $12.2 billion for the first quarter of 2025, and $12.6 billion during the fourth quarter of 2025. Our noninterest-bearing deposits declined on average by $112 million compared to the first quarter of 2025 and by $107 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. On average, noninterest-bearing deposits were 58% of total deposits for both the first quarter of 2026 and the fourth quarter of 2025, compared to 59% for the first quarter of 2025. Interest-bearing nonmaturity deposits and customer repurchase agreements grew on average by $400 million from the first quarter of 2025.

Our cost of deposits and repos was 82 basis points for the first quarter of 2026, compared to 86 basis points for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 87 basis points for the year ago quarter. I will now turn the call over to Allen to further discuss additional aspects of our balance sheet and income.

E. Nicholson: Thanks, Dave. Pretax pre-provision income was $71.6 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $71.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $67.5 million in the first quarter of last year. After adjusting for acquisition expense and gains on OREO, our operating income grew from the first quarter of 2025 by $8 million, reflecting positive operating leverage of 6%. The growth in operating income was driven by growth in net interest income of $7.4 million by 7% rate of growth. Net interest income was $117.8 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $122.7 million in the fourth quarter of '25 and $110.4 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Interest income decreased from the fourth quarter of 2025 by $6.9 million due primarily to 2 fewer calendar days in the first quarter, a $134 million decrease in earning assets and the $3.2 million of non-accrued interest paid during the fourth quarter. Interest income increased from the first quarter of 2025 by $6.1 million as our earning asset yield increased by 7 basis points from 4.28% to 4.35%, and our average earning assets increased by $336 million. Interest expense declined from both the prior quarter and the prior year quarter. Interest expense was $31.3 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $33.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $32.6 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Our cost of funds decreased from 1.01% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 97 basis points in the first quarter of 2026. Our cost of funds was 7 basis points lower than the first quarter of 2025, even though the average balance of interest-bearing deposits and repos increased by $400 million. Noninterest expense -- noninterest income was $14.3 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $11.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $16.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. The fourth quarter of 2025 included a $2.8 million loss on the sale of securities, while the first quarter of 2025 included a gain on sale of [indiscernible] of $2.2 million.

The quarter-over-quarter increase in noninterest income also included a $1.1 million increase in the cash render value of bank-owned life insurance. Trust and investment services income grew by $313,000 or 9% from the first quarter of 2025, but decreased by $307,000 over the fourth quarter of 2025 due to lower brokerage fee income. Our allowance for credit loss was $80.2 million at March 31, 2026. In comparison, our allowance for credit losses was $77 million at December 31, 2025. The $3 million increase in the allowance was primarily due to the establishment of a specific reserves totaling $3.2 million. Our economic forecast continues to be a blend of multiple forecasts produced by Moody's.

We continue to have the largest individual scenario weighting on Moody's baseline forecast with both upside and downside risks weighted among multiple forecasts. The resulting economic forecast at March 31, 2025, was modestly different from our forecast at the end of 2025. I'm sorry, the resulting economic forecast at March 31, 2026, with modestly different than the forecast at the end of 2025. Real GDP is forecasted to be below 1% in the second half of 2026 and stay below 2% through 2027. The unemployment rate is forecasted to reach 5% by the middle of 2026 and remain above 5% through 2028.

Commercial real estate prices are forecasted to continue their decline through the end of 2026 before experiencing growth in the back half of 2027. So switching to our investment portfolio. Investment securities totaled $4.8 billion at March 31, 2026, a $116 million decrease from the end of 2025. Available for sale or AFS investment securities were $2.59 billion and their held-to-maturity investments totaled $2.25 billion. The unrealized loss on AFS securities increased by $2 million from $308 million on December 31, 2025 to $310 million.

Our $700 million in fair value hedges generated negative carry in the first quarter of 2026, resulting in a $1.1 million and $750,000 decrease in interest income compared to the first and fourth quarters of 2025, respectively. Now turning to our capital position. At March 31, 2026, our shareholders' equity was $2.3 billion, a [ $93 million ] increase from the first quarter of 2025, including the $52 million increase in other comprehensive income. The company's tangible common equity ratio was 10.5% at March 31, 2026, while our common equity Tier 1 capital ratio was 16.3%. Our tangible book value per share increased over the last 12 months by 9% from $10.45 at March 31, 2025, to $11.42.

I'll now turn the call back to Dave for further discussion of our expenses.

David Brager: Thank you, Allen. Noninterest expense for the first quarter of 2026 was $60.6 million, which includes $1.1 million in onetime merger [indiscernible] acquisition of Heritage Bank of Commerce and $500,000 in provision for off-balance sheet reserves. Regulatory assessment expense decreased by $1.6 million as a result of the unwinding, the remaining accrual for the special FDIC assessment. Excluding acquisition expense and the provision for off balance sheet reserves, the level of core operating expense was essentially flat to both the prior quarter and the first quarter of 2025. Our efficiency ratio was 45.8% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to 46.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 46.7% in the first quarter of 2025.

Noninterest expense, excluding acquisition expense as a percentage of average assets totaled 1.55% for the first quarter of 2026, compared to 1.53% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 1.58% for the first quarter of 2025. This concludes today's presentation. Now Allen and I and Clay will be happy to take any questions that you might have.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from the line of David Feaster with Raymond James.

David Feaster: I wanted to start on the deal and welcome to the call, Clay. So I know we're only a week into this, but I just wanted to get a sense of how to [indiscernible] quarter. How has it gone thus far? Like what are your top priorities just in these first few weeks after the deal is closed from an operational perspective. And Dave, I know like the goal is always to CVB, the bank. Like where are you focused initially and you see the most opportunity to add value?

David Brager: Yes. So I think initially, David, obviously, we're just trying to acclimate all the new associates that have joined us through the merger. So Clay has been -- Clay and his team, the former Heritage folks have been drinking through a firehose. There's a lot of training, a lot of information that's going on. We're looking at how we set up accounts, how we structure relationships. All of those things are part of that initial time frame. Clay and Julie, who joined our Board were in our first Board meeting yesterday. So they're getting acclimated. Clay is going to be spending a lot of time down here. We'll be spending a lot of time together.

We sort of restructured the organization to involve the new senior leaders that are joining us, Clay and his former senior leadership team that are remaining. So there's just a lot of education about the culture of our bank. The way we do things. And that's not an event, it's a process. So it's going to take some time to do that. But all in all, things went very well and closed weekend and it will continue to get easier and better as we go forward. But I'd love to [indiscernible] give his perspective as well.

Unknown Executive: Yes, David, I think, Dave, the integration is going just fine. As Dave said, the team is just getting acclimated to do reporting lines and new systems and reporting lines. So it's all going just fine. I think the primary focus we have is one thing close to our customers and clients and making sure that they hear from us often and also just keeping a close eye on our associates to make sure that they're keeping pace with the integration and the training.

David Feaster: Okay. That's great. And I know we didn't include much in the way of optimization. Look, the deal gives you a ton of financial flexibility, right? Didn't really include any optimization in guidance outside of maybe some of the purchase mortgages that we talked about with the deal closed, and all this financial flexibility, has your thoughts changed at all about opportunities to optimize things or deploy excess liquidity just given the fully marked balance sheet?

E. Nicholson: David, you're right, we do have some ability to restructure the balance sheet a little bit. We have announced and do have a sale in place for the single-family mortgage pools of Heritage. Beyond that, we're still evaluating it. I think we'll come out of the quarter with a balance sheet and a plan that you'll be able to see on the next quarterly earnings, but a lot of moving parts right now and it does give us a fair amount of optionality.

David Feaster: Okay. And then just last one for me. The commentary on the origination activity is extremely encouraging. I wanted to dig into that a bit. How much of the improvement that you're seeing is you gaining share at this point and your bankers being more productive versus improving demand. And just kind of curious, how do you think about the growth outlook, just in light of the competitive landscape that you alluded to, which it sounds like it's primarily on the pricing side. And then just again, the expansion in the Bay Area?

David Brager: Yes. Well, obviously, we're not going to compete on the credit quality side. We're going to maintain that pristine credit quality. And when you're fighting for those types of deals, you have to price them in a way that you can win them, assuming that you're monetizing the rest of the relationship as well. But I think, initially, I would say, to answer your question more specifically, I would say, initially, it was just there was more opportunity out there.

I think what's happened over the last couple of quarters, for example, and with the increase in the opportunities that we're seeing, I think that we're in a very good position from a liquidity perspective, from a market perspective, obviously, from the Heritage -- the former Heritage perspective, there's some significant opportunity there just with the capacity of the combined organization relative to pull them at house lending limits, those types of things. So we view it as very positively. We need to get them integrated and understand how we look at it. But from a credit perspective, very similar; from a pricing perspective on the lending side, very similar.

On the deposit pricing side, that's probably a little more work that we're going to have to do ultimately. But at the end of the day, we're going after the same types of relationships we were going after the same types of relationships. So I think it's our people recognizing that, hey, we're ready. But a lot of it is just there's a lot going on out there, but there's a lot of competition. So that's primarily why even though in some ways, the treasury rates have gone up a little bit. And our loan origination yields have gone down slightly just because we're having to compete if we want to win.

David Feaster: Is our pipelines still holding up pretty solid? And do you think you can kind of hold new origination yields in the 6% realm?

David Brager: Yes. I mean, I would say that it's going to be around that 6% range. Going forward, obviously, it depends on the mix of real estate versus C&I and then the utilization of that because we're actually getting better rates on the C&I stuff than on the real estate stuff. And that was part of the reason the net interest margin -- well, there's a lot of -- the Fed lowered rates in December, there was a number of things that happened and our yields stay the same, essentially the same if you exclude the [indiscernible]. And so I think that was a big victory for us.

And if this loan demand remains and we're continuing to book what we've been booking, I think that's a big tailwind for us as we keep going through the year. But yes, pipelines are holding up and there's plenty of opportunities for us out there for the right relationships.

Operator: One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Kelly Motta with KBW.

Kelly Motta: Maybe building upon David's question, I do appreciate the color on pipelines, and it's all quite encouraging. I'm wondering in your markets if you're seeing any increased competitive dynamics, notably, I think, growth at Wells was a lot stronger with the asset cap coming off. I'm just wondering if there's been any notable shifts or change in dynamics in your markets?

David Brager: Yes. I don't know if I would say there's been any noticeable shift. I mean it's always extremely competitive, especially for the types of relationships that we're looking for. There are some banks. You mentioned Wells Fargo. I would -- there's other banks. Pat Premier was not as active for the last few years, Colombia is going to be much more active. I mean there's a number of organizations. The Fifth Third, the regional banks, BMO. There's a number of banks that are coming into our market. And plus, you always have the big guys. And so I think there is maybe some increase at the higher end of sort of our typical type relationship we go after.

But it's not significantly different than before. I don't know, Clay, do you want to.

Unknown Executive: No. I echo Dave's comments here. The market continues to be very competitive. I don't think there's been any recent shifts in competitive nature of the clients that we go after in the Bay Area, it continues to be just as competitive as it is here.

David Brager: Yes. And Kelly, I would just say this, we're -- our bankers are most successful in their new customer origination, new relationship origination business, it's with the biggest banks. We provide a super high level of service that allows us to compete. We have the product array, and I think that's another sort of tailwind from the Heritage merger as far as both combined organizations being able to provide that wide array of products and services to our relationships and prospects. So there are some very positive things that are occurring. And as we get everybody integrated and acclimated, it should improve.

Kelly Motta: Got it. That's really helpful color. Turning to capital, your level levels should still be quite robust pro forma for the merger just closed. You had been a bit active in the buyback prior to announcing the deal, which put that on hold, wondering any updated thoughts on capital management, buybacks, future deals, the work things?

David Brager: Yes. So I'll sort of start with the tail end of your question first. Look, we want to make sure we integrate Heritage appropriately. That is our #1 focus. So unless there's something that's really unique or an opportunity that's really unique and something we've been looking at, I would say we're more focused on the integration of Heritage than additional M&A. We do recognize that we have an enormous amount of capital and prior to us getting in conversations with Clay and Heritage, that was something that we were very active in, and we repurchased 4.2 million shares last year, and we'll continue to evaluate that.

Obviously, the combined company's earnings, we'll be looking at the dividend, ultimately, this quarter is really where we're going to get all the -- Allen can opine on this as well, but we're going to get the balance sheet set up the way that we want it set up and then we'll be working on those capital management things and definitely, buybacks are going to be part of that strategy going forward. So I don't know, Allen, do you have anything you want to add?

E. Nicholson: Kelly, as Dave said, it will be noisy in Q2, a little bit more noise in Q3. But as we get into Q3, I think we'll have a lot more visibility into our capital. And of course, as you pointed out, our pro forma is already very strong. And historically, we've been able to generate a lot of organic capital. And we'll definitely have to evaluate all those things that Dave mentioned.

Kelly Motta: Got it. If I could just slip it in as a follow-up. You mentioned the resi mortgage, it's held for sale right now. Do you anticipate that off the balance sheet by quarter end? Or is there a possibility that could stick around a bit longer than perhaps we expected an announcement?

E. Nicholson: No, we do expect it to be off the balance sheet by the end of the quarter.

Operator: One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler.

Matthew Clark: I want to start on the C&I credit that you assigned some specific reserves to. And then the other classified credits that migrated. I know classified overall still sub 1%, but just wanted to get some color on what happened there and plans for resolution and timing possible?

David Brager: Yes. So I'll start with the nonperformer. So that C&I loan was impacted by one of their customers who declared bankruptcy. So we have shored up our collateral position. We did put a specific reserve because at the time we had not shored up the collateral position in the way that we wanted to. So I don't really anticipate, there could be some challenges there, but we're very proactive when we create things and when we look at things and how we classify them. So just being very transparent, it's -- for lack of a better term, they're a marketing company for a larger organization and they sell agricultural products.

So it's something that we've been involved with since one of these customers, but we just wanted to make sure that we elevated it to that level. As far as the classified loans, it's really centered in two relationships. They both happen to be C&I. We're in very good collateral positions in both of those deals. That makes up the majority of the increase in the classified loans. One of the companies is in the midst of a sale and that could happen. I mean we're obviously prepared if it doesn't. But they're both within their collateral guidelines and we think one of them is just a situation with the operations, and they're working hard on that.

So again, just being very proactive and it's something that happens now and again. And -- but nothing systematic or endemic of the rest of the portfolio. These are just 2 separate situations.

Matthew Clark: Okay. Great. And then just a few housekeeping items. Do you plan to do the CECL double count here in 2Q, resulting in an outsized provision? Or are you not [indiscernible] ?

E. Nicholson: Matthew, we elected the new accounting, so there won't be a double count.

Matthew Clark: Okay. Great. And then accretion expectations? I know the marks can still move around a little bit, but I assume you have preliminary marks at this stage. Any guesstimate, I mean we have our own, but I just wanted to check in to see what you thought may be quarterly -- normal accretion -- normal accretion might be per quarter?

E. Nicholson: Too early, Matt. Too early, sorry. We'll have -- we'll be able to give you better answers next quarter.

Matthew Clark: Okay. And then just -- I think there was a special FHLB dividend. Can you just quantify that this quarter?

E. Nicholson: I think it was about $400,000.

Operator: One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Andrew Terrell with Stephens.

Unknown Analyst: Maybe just wanted to start off. I know you guys don't generally guide, but with the merger closed in the second quarter, the kind of range of forecast for the margin for 2Q or pretty widespread. I was hoping you could maybe just help us out. I don't know if you have kind of day 1 pro forma margin, what the general kind of impact is to your reported margin when you layer in heritage. Just any kind of guardrails you could put kind of around margin expectations for us?

E. Nicholson: Andrew, once again, sorry, it's a little bit too early. Dave said we closed 4 days ago. We did include on Page 31 of the investor presentation, the pro forma loans and deposits for the combined organization, excluding the mortgages we're selling. So at least, I mean, you can look at that from a starting point, but we are still evaluating the balance sheet in terms of what we're going to do with repositioning the bond portfolio, repositioning some of our wholesale funds. So unfortunately, it's too preliminary for me to give you much more information.

Unknown Analyst: Okay. Does the yield on Page 31 of the deck for HTPK loans, the 560, does that include the single-family yield? And I'm assuming the 560 is pretty out of mark?

E. Nicholson: Yes. There's no mark. And if you look at the pro forma yield of 547, that's excluding the single-family. And that's on a combined basis, of course.

Unknown Analyst: Got it. Okay. When we talked some in the past just about maybe some of the opportunity to upsize some of the legacy Heritage relationships and maybe that some of that was already occurring pre deal close. Just can you remind us general kind of opportunity set there? How that influences kind of how you're thinking about loan growth throughout the year?

Unknown Executive: Yes, Andrew, no question about it at deal announcement, we gave a mantra to the team to make sure that we captured all of those clients that we're growing and that we're reaching our upper limits at Heritage. We now have greatly expanded that capacity and those clients obviously have extended their runway with Heritage significantly. So there's great opportunities in terms of our largest clients that on a going forward basis. I would add to that, too, as Dave said, there's some additional synergies amongst the 2 firms as combined in terms of ag, dairy, lending, mortgage origination, trust, wealth services, international services.

So there's just a wide variety of opportunities that our relationship management teams and calling officers are engaged in. So going forward looks good.

David Brager: Yes. And I would just say, I want to Clay to answer that first just from the perspective of the former Heritage offices. But from the overall perspective, Andrew, just to your question, a lot of this is 4 days in, they're drinking through the firehose, trying to figure out everything. And so we're working on it. But just overall, pipelines have remained strong. The relationships, we haven't had a lot of turnover in relationships. We're seeing opportunities for us to do maybe a little bit better than we did last year as far as loan growth. But I do think that as we get through the second quarter, we'll have a much better idea. And you're right.

I mean I've always said sort of low single-digit growth. I mean that could be mid-single-digit growth. But we just need to make sure that we understand the relationships as we look out on the opportunities that are out there. But for now, we're sort of sticking with what we've been doing and what's been done in the past. So I don't know if that gives you a better answer, but we're still kind of in -- we want quality stuff, and we're having to price it aggressively. And so I think that is going to be somewhat of a limiting factor as well.

But on the positive side are definitely the things Clay said, not just on the loan side, but on the overall relationship side.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Gary Tenner with D.A. Davidson.

Gary Tenner: One follow-up on the initial loan growth commentary. In terms of the strengthening of the commercial real estate segment from a demand and production perspective, how much -- could you kind of parse that a little bit in terms of more -- is it more customer activity? Is it borrower is getting more comfortable with the rate environment we're in and moving forward on projects? Is it CBB getting more competitive on pricing? Just kind of parse out kind of the moving parts that's attributed to that strength?

David Brager: Yes. Well, I definitely think it starts with potential borrowers out there. It's, I mean, our existing customers, it's -- our bankers' ability to go and attract new relationships to the bank. So I think that's driving some of it. I think also, Gary, I'd say our average size of new loan origination has creeped up a little bit as well. There are a number of things that are sort of assisting us in reaching that low single-digit growth that we had last year. So I think that's part of it. I don't know that we're getting more aggressive on pricing than we have been in the past. We were always aggressive for the right relationships.

Obviously, the loan pricing is just one component of the overall relationship. We have to look at the deposit side, we look at the fee income side. We look at how we monetize the entire relationship. And so that -- I don't know that we're getting more aggressive, but I definitely think customers are more used to the rate environment and money can't sit on the sidelines for that long. So there are people that are doing things, and we're seeing some of that activity and capturing a good part of it. But yes, I think it's all of those things that are sort of contributing to those opportunities.

And we just 90% of the new loan originations in the first quarter over the first quarter of last year, it's basically double what we did last year, and that's -- I think that speaks to just the opportunities that we're seeing and the opportunities that we're winning.

Gary Tenner: Appreciate that. And actually, as a follow-up there, any particular asset class within [indiscernible] that you're seeing more activity in or maybe is driving more of the [indiscernible]?

David Brager: Yes. I don't know that there's a specific asset class. It's pretty well balanced between all asset classes. I will say even it's probably easier to parse it out by owner or non-owner. We were doing a lot of owner-occupied in the past. The thing that was really missing was investor commercial real estate really across all classes, multifamily, industrial, retail, I mean, we are seeing much more investor commercial real estate than we have in the past. I mean, going back the last year has been pretty steady in that area. But before that, we weren't really seeing any investor commercial real estate. Nobody was doing anything.

So I think it's just more investor real estate across all asset classes and those opportunities, we've been doing pretty well with.

Operator: I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Brager for any closing remarks.

David Brager: Great. Thank you, Sherry. First, I would like to welcome Heritage Bank of Commerce customers, associates and shareholders to Citizens Business Bank. The merger with Heritage Bank Commerce marks the most strategic and largest acquisition by asset size in our history, bringing together 2 premier relationship-focused business banks and advancing our long-standing objective of expanding citizens throughout California by entering the Bay Area. Our team is eager to build on the strong customer and community relationships that Heritage has established, and our performance in the first quarter demonstrates our continued financial strength and focus on our vision of serving the comprehensive financial needs of small to medium-sized businesses and their owners.

Our consistent financial performance is highlighted by our 196th consecutive quarters of profitability and our 146th consecutive quarters of paying cash dividends. I would like to thank our customers and associates for their continuing commitment and loyalty. Thank you for joining us this quarter. We appreciate your interest and look forward to speaking with you in July for our second quarter 2026 earnings call. Please let Allen or I know if you have any questions. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today's program. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. Parts of this article were created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.