Washington Trust Bancorp - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 2025 delivered solid sequential improvement: net income rose to $13.2M ($0.68 diluted EPS) from $12.2M ($0.63) in Q1; NIM expanded 7 bps to 2.36% as funding costs eased and mix improved.
• Against S&P Global consensus, EPS beat by ~$0.05 ($0.68 vs $0.63*), while revenue was a slight miss ($53.7M* vs $54.1M*); management expects only “a couple bps” more NIM expansion in Q3 amid still-elevated deposit costs.
• Fee engines improved: wealth management revenue up 2% QoQ with AUA up 5% to $7.18B (market gains offsetting net outflows), and mortgage banking revenue up 32% with $116.8M loans sold.
• Credit metrics remain manageable: NPLs rose to 0.51% (one $9.4M C&I placed on nonaccrual), but ACL coverage of NPLs is 157% and net charge-offs fell to $0.65M; provision declined to $0.6M.
• Strategic/catalyst items: dividend maintained at $0.56, in-market deposits +9% YoY, brokered deposits cut to $2M, FHLB up (balancing function); buybacks paused after a one-day $10K repurchase as the team prioritizes capital build.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Net interest margin and NII improved: NIM +7 bps to 2.36% and NII +2% QoQ to $37.2M, aided by 7 bps lower cost of interest-bearing liabilities (3.12%) and reduced wholesale funding balances.
• Fee momentum: wealth management revenue +2% QoQ with AUA +5% QoQ to $7.18B; mortgage banking revenue +32% QoQ on $116.8M loans sold; swap income increased to $0.68M.
• Management tone on NIM and deposit costs: “expecting a pretty modest expansion… maybe only a couple of basis points” and “we will aggressively reprice deposits down… if the Fed indeed does start to cut,” highlighting reduced liability sensitivity vs last fall.

What Went Wrong

• Credit watch items: Nonaccruals rose to 0.51% of loans (from 0.42%) mainly due to a ~$9.4M C&I relationship moving to nonaccrual; management cited a broadband contractor bankruptcy within a syndicate exposure (~$11M potential), with resolution expected at least partially this year.
• Past dues ticked up to 0.27% of loans (from 0.20%); office CRE remains challenged—one Class B office resolved with a reasonable loss, another is 50% vacant and under watch.
• Wealth AUA still experiences net outflows (13 consecutive quarters noted by an analyst); management is adding talent, finished a wealth core system conversion, and may pursue small, RI-focused wealth M&A to improve net flows.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello everyone, and thank you for your patience. Today's call will begin shortly. Good morning and welcome to the Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.'s conference call. My name is Lydia, and I'll be your operator today. If participants need assistance during the call at any time, please press star zero. Participants interested in asking a question at the end of the call should press star one to get in the queue. Today's call is being recorded. I'd like to turn the call over to Sharon Walsh, Senior Vice President and Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications. Ms. Walsh, over to you.

Thank you, Lydia. Good morning and welcome to the Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.'s conference call for the second quarter of 2025. Joining us this morning are members of the Washington Trust Executive Team: Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mary Noons, President and Chief Operating Officer, Ron Ohsberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer Bill Wray, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. Please note that today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements, and our actual results could differ materially from what is discussed on today's call. Our complete safe harbor statement is contained in our earnings release, which was issued yesterday, as well as other documents that are filed with the SEC. All of these materials and other public filings are available on our Investor Relations website at ir.washtrust.com. Washington Trust trades on Nasdaq under the symbol WASH.

I'm now pleased to introduce you to today's host, Washington Trust Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ned Handy. Ned.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Sharon. Good morning and thank you for joining our second quarter conference call. We respect and appreciate your time and your interest in Washington Trust. I'll briefly comment on the quarter, and then Ron will provide more detail on the financial results. After our prepared remarks, Mary and Bill will join us for the Q&A session. Washington Trust's second quarter results reflect our diversified business model performing positively. We realized growth in net interest income, wealth management revenue, and mortgage banking revenue, and we continued to build capital. This was a solid quarter with loan and deposit growth on target. This quarter, while we continued to focus on deposit generation, we enhanced our wealth management team with the addition of a new client services manager and business development additions to our wealth advisory and private client teams.

This added expertise will be instrumental as we continue to grow and evolve to meet the needs of our clients and communities, and continue to provide the highly personalized consultative experience that has defined our firm for generations. Also, in the quarter, we finalized the conversion of our core wealth management system, which will ensure enhanced customer experience. The company remains committed to providing exceptional full-service banking, mortgage, and wealth services to our customers and is focused on continuing to be a financial partner that provides solutions and resources that customers need for all life stages and the unique opportunities and challenges that come with those milestones. I'll now turn the call over to Ron for some additional details on the quarter. Let me be glad to address any of your questions. Ron.

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Great. Thank you, Ned, and good morning, everyone. For the second quarter, we reported net income of $13.2 million or $0.68 per share, compared to $12.2 million and $0.63 per share last quarter. As previously disclosed, there were two infrequent items included in first-quarter results: a pension termination charge and a sale leaseback net gain. Excluding these items, adjusted net income increased by $1.5 million or $0.07 per share. Net interest income was $37.2 million, up by $763,000 or 2% on a linked quarter basis. The margin was 2.36%, up by seven basis points. Non-interest income totaled $17.1 million in Q2. Excluding Q1 sale leaseback net gain of $7 million, adjusted non-interest income was up by $1.4 million or 9%. Wealth management revenues were $10.1 million, up by $229,000 or 2%, reflecting an increase in transaction-based and seasonal tax servicing fee income.

Asset-based revenues were down modestly, reflecting a decline in average assets under administration balances. However, at the end of period, assets under administration balances totaled $7.2 billion, up by $363 million or 5%. Mortgage banking revenues totaled $3 million, up by $730,000 or 32%. Our mortgage pipeline at June 30 was $102 million, up by $6 million or 7% from the end of March. Loan-related derivative income, which is transactional in nature, totaled $676,000 in the second quarter, compared to $101,000 in Q1. Non-interest expense totaled $36.5 million in Q2. Excluding Q1's pension plan settlement charge of $6.4 million, adjusted non-interest expense was up by $770,000 or 2% on a linked quarter basis. Salaries and benefits expense was up by $603,000 or 3%, largely due to volume-related increases in mortgage originator compensation. Income tax expense in the second quarter totaled $3.9 million, and the effective tax rate was 22.7%.

Our full-year effective tax rate is expected to be 22.4%. Turning to the balance sheet, total loans were up by $44 million or 1%. Total commercial loans increased by $57 million or 2%, while residential loans decreased by 1%. In-market deposits were up by $30 million or 1% from the end of the first quarter and by $407 million or 9% on a year-over-year basis. Broker deposits were down by $25 million, and FHLB borrowings were up by $151 million. Our asset and credit quality metrics remain solid. Non-performing loans were 51 basis points, and past due loans were 27 basis points compared with total loans. The allowance totaled $41.1 million or 80 basis points on total loans and provided NPL coverage of 157%, and the second quarter provision for credit losses was $600,000. We had net charge-offs of $647,000 in the second quarter.

At this time, I will turn the call back to Ned.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Ron. Lydia, we can open it up to questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Please press star followed by the number one if you'd like to ask a question and ensure your devices are muted locally when it's your turn to speak. Our first question today comes from Mark Fitzgibbon with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Your line's open.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

Hey, guys. Good morning.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Hey, Mark.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

Hey, Mark. First question, Ron, I had for you was sort of how you're thinking about the net interest margin and what you're assuming for Fed rate cuts in the back half of the year.

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Yeah. For the third quarter, I would say you can see our margins starting to level out. I think we're expecting a pretty modest expansion in the margin, maybe only a couple of basis points in the third quarter. We are seeing higher than previously projected deposit costs, so kind of reaching the top on that. As far as the Fed, we're a lot less liability sensitive than we were last fall when the Fed was cutting. I think we did a good job last fall of repricing our deposits down. We will aggressively reprice our deposits down as much as we feel we can without causing attrition if the Fed indeed does start to cut. I don't think that we'll necessarily see as much impact as we did in the third and fourth quarter of last year.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

Okay, great. It looked like you had pretty good mortgage origination this quarter, I think $181 million. I was curious, how much of that was purchased versus refi? Also, what was the mix between sort of hybrid ARMs and 30-year fixed?

Mary Noons (President and COO)

Hi, Mark. This is Mary. We have about 75% of our origination related to the purchase market. It goes as high as 80% depending on the timeframe. As far as the mix, predominantly the saleable is 30-year fixed. We do some origination into portfolio that is a hybrid ARM, mostly 7/1.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

Okay. Great. I guess, Ned, I'm curious, with all the consolidation that we've seen up in Massachusetts recently, it would seem like kind of an opportune time to maybe open some branches up there or even consider a merger with a bank up in the Massachusetts market since you have so much of your loan portfolio up there and your mortgage business, the wealth business. I guess I'm curious, is that in the cards for you all, or how are you thinking about sort of strategic expansion into Massachusetts?

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, always on the list of possibilities. We think there's probably some talent opportunity. We've added a few people in wealth that have spent prior periods in their life in the Boston marketplace. We think, Mark, we've got locations in Rhode Island that we can build out where our brand is stronger before we jump into the Massachusetts market on the de novo branching side. We'll see what comes out of the various transactions that are going on in terms of, you know, obviously one of those transactions has some Rhode Island presence. That's going to be interesting to see kind of what opportunities come out of that. M&A, you know our history, nobody would accuse us of being overly acquisitive. If the right transaction were to come up at the right price point and enabled us to grow reasonably, you know, we'd have to think about it.

I think we've got work to do.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

Ned, what about the other? I'm sorry.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

I was going to say, what about the other way? There are some much bigger banks up in Massachusetts now that seem to be looking south. You know, could Washington Trust be a target for one of those banks at some point?

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

I suppose we could. That hasn't come to our attention yet. We think we're, you know, obviously, Mark, our job is to try and maintain independence, and we know we have to earn that. We know we've got work to do on the organic front to assure that. That's where we're focused. We like our independence, and we want to stay independent. We'd rather be an acquirer than acquired. Obviously, we have a fiduciary duty to respond to any kind of activity, but we haven't seen any yet.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

Okay. Lastly, I hate to beat a dead horse here because I've asked about this in the past, but we've had, I think, 13 consecutive quarters of net outflows in the wealth management unit. Could you talk about maybe some of the things you're doing to try to stem that or change the direction?

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, as I pointed out, we've added some talent. Not hundreds of people, but a few people that are going to add to our client service capabilities and our sales capabilities in the private clients group. We just finished the conversion of our core wealth management system, which I know will create a better customer experience going forward. That's just being rolled out now. I think we've talked about small M&A activity primarily in the Rhode Island marketplace where our brand is strongest. That continues to be in our sort of strategic plan. I think there's a little bit of marketing activity that we're embarking on. I think the combination of all those things, there's no silver bullet, Mark. It's a hard business to grow organically. We know that. You've made that point, and you're not wrong that in addition to market support, we need to see net growth.

All I can tell you is that we're focused on that incrementally on a lot of fronts.

Mark Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and Head of FSG Research)

Thank you.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Mark.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Damon DelMonte with KBW. Please go ahead.

Damon DelMonte (Managing Director, Equity Research)

Hey, good morning, everyone. Hope you're all doing well today. Thanks for taking the questions. First question on loan growth. Good to see some positive movement here with, I think you had about 3% linked quarter annualized for the whole portfolio. You really got the majority of the growth on the commercial side, about 9%. Could you just talk a little bit about how your pipelines are looking today and what your expectations are here for the back half of the year?

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Damon. Yeah, we were happy with the growth, and the pipeline continues to grow. At quarter end, it was close to $145 million, which is not the highest it's been over the last, you know, 5 to 10 years, but it's up substantially from the end of first quarter with pretty equal balance between C&I and CRE. We're happy with the activity levels and continue to support kind of the low single-digit growth for the year. The second quarter was obviously strong. Payoffs were down a little bit. We do have some projected payoffs still in the second half of the year. I think we stay with the guidance that we've given, but happy with the growth in the quarter.

Damon DelMonte (Managing Director, Equity Research)

How would you characterize the sentiment of your borrowers today versus, call it, 90 days ago when there was a lot more uncertainty coming out of D.C.? Do you feel like people are believing in the economy and believing in their businesses and looking to take the next step forward with investing, or do you think there's still some skepticism out there?

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, it's interesting. I've been looking at some of the larger regional bank reports, and I've seen a couple of people comment on higher utilization of lines. We haven't necessarily seen that. We don't have a whole lot of lines of credit, but I think there's still a level of uncertainty. On the real estate side, I think projects are costing more, and people are being all the more careful for it. I think investment in machinery and equipment is certainly not back to sort of the old days. I think people are optimistic, but careful, I would say. I think we're, I would put us in the same category. We're optimistic about the opportunities we're seeing. We're seeing some, you know, a little more construction opportunity, although that's slowed down a fair amount in our footprint.

I'd say it's a little better than lukewarm, but it's not quite warm yet. How's that?

Damon DelMonte (Managing Director, Equity Research)

That sounds good. Good characterization. Thank you. On the fee income, the swap gains were up, or the derivative income was very strong this quarter. Do you think that based on what you're seeing today, you could kind of repeat a level of this quarter, or do you think it kind of goes back to a more normalized level after this quarter's result?

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

I would lean towards more normal. They're hard to predict, right? They're chunky in nature. We're working with our customers and making sure that they understand that that product is available to them. Ultimately, it's whatever works best for the customers. I think we're pushing that a little harder than we were, say, last year. Hard to know, Damon, exactly what will come in on that.

Damon DelMonte (Managing Director, Equity Research)

Got it. Okay. That's all that I had for now. Thank you very much.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Damon.

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Just as a reminder to ask a question today, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. We have a question from Laurie Hunsicker with Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Yeah, hi. Thanks. Good morning.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Hey, Laurie.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Just sitting here with non-interest income for a moment. The BOLI looked a little bit outside. Was there anything one-time in that?

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

No.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay. Okay. Just going back to net, to NIM here, your wholesale broker, you know, down to almost zero, which is great. Obviously, you had a sharp jump in your FHLB. How do we think about that? Do you have a spot margin for us for the month of June?

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Yeah. I'll start with the spot margin, which was $238. Wholesale funding, whether it's brokered or FHLB, is really just a balancing function on the rest of the balance sheet. We're probably carrying a little bit higher interest-bearing deposits at other banks just from a timing standpoint. We'll pay down that FHLB with excess cash as soon as those advances hit maturity. There's no particular reason for it, Laurie, other than that's just kind of what the balance sheet called for. Brokered CDs are way down because they're just not economical for us right now. We look at those as interchangeable with FHLB, just depending on price. The CD market is just more expensive than FHLB, so we're not doing it.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay. That's helpful. On expenses, the sale leaseback that you did, is that fully reflected from an expense standpoint this quarter? Or just remind me when that happened last quarter. What was the timing?

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Yeah. It happened in the first, you know, we did them in the first quarter. I think the leases kicked in in February. That's all on there, and it was in the guidance that I gave back in January.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Right. Okay. We had about a half a quarter expense last quarter, so fully, fully in the quarter. Okay. Great. Then, any de novo branches planned for this year or next year? How do you think about that?

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Middle of next year.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

How many are you looking at?

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Right now, it's one.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay. Great. Just going back over to loan growth, your multifamily growth was substantial this quarter and even last quarter too, but really this quarter. Can you just remind us? I don't think there's anything, but can you just remind us, do you have any New York City rent-controlled? Do you have any New York City exposure? Should we think about that?

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

Hello, this is Bill. No, we don't.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Great. Okay. Bill, probably these next few questions are for you. Just touching here on non-performers, can you go through that uptick, that C&I non-performer, that $9.4 million? Any details on that loan, timing, expense, specific reserves, just how you're thinking about that?

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

This is a potential $11 million exposure to a broadband infrastructure contractor. What happened was during the quarter, their largest customer backed out of a major contract. They had to file for Chapter 11 due to cash flow. We're part of a bank syndicate pushing for expeditious resolution. We have, we think, appropriate specific reserves. We expect this will be at least partially resolved this year before the end of the year.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay. Sorry, how much in reserve do you have on this specific loan?

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

We have the appropriate amount.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay.

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

I'm sorry to be.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Nope. I get that. Okay. Now, obviously, you're the Class B office, non-performer of the $3.3 million you all said would resolve, which is great. Are there any details you can share just generally with respect to that resolution? I know you had another credit that was part of that same relationship, the $4.3 million, which I think is the only pre-non-performer that you have. Can you update us on the vacancy and the timing of that? You know, just anything you're aware of.

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

Sure. As you noted, one was sold. That actually was prompted by a 10/31. We were pleased to see that go at a, you know, a loss, but not a reasonable loss. On the remaining non-performer, it's 50% vacant. They are paying. They are trying. They are seeing some leasing activity, but we're not seeing, to be blunt, a lot of positive momentum there. That one we're still, you know, watching carefully, trying to push for expeditious resolution if we can.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Is that likely going to be resolved in the next couple of quarters, or how do you think about that?

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

That would be our hope. Right now, they're paying. They're supporting the property. The office market doesn't have demand that's really easy to estimate. We're pushing all things that we can, looking for potential owner occupancy type sales, maybe other 10/31s. I couldn't give you a timeline on that other than that we will resolve it as soon as it's appropriate.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay. Okay. Just remind us, I know you took a charge-off last quarter. What's the reserves on that specific loan?

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

That loan's been appropriately reduced, you know, via charge-off to the right carry value based on accounting rules. I don't want to get any more specific than that if I can avoid it.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

All right. The $21.5 million, the new construction that's part of the SNEC, the lab, the $21.5 million. Do you have any updates on that?

Bill Wray (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer)

Yes. Yes, that's gone from 50%-62% leased. If things keep moving, it's on track for 70%. There's an LOI out for that, we hope. Good momentum on that project. Still classified where it is, but we think it's got some traction.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay. Great. Thank you so much. I know I asked a lot of questions on credit here. Your credit's really good, but I just wanted some details. I guess, Ned, just very high level back to you. Your capital levels are strong. You know, but your stock is still sitting here 15% below your cap rate. Can you talk a little bit about how you're thinking about buyback consideration?

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, Laurie, you know we have the approval in place. Ron, we dipped our toe in the water for a day. Laurie, we really decided that capital preservation and growth is a more prudent thing for us right at the moment. It's something we keep our eyes on. Ron, I don't know if you have a.

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

Yeah, Laurie, it's tempting, and I can certainly make an argument. As I said, we actually did initiate for a single day and then decided that we're more focused on operations and just kind of, you know, our capital's fine, and we think we'd like to have a little bit more. That's kind of where we are at the moment.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay. How many shares did you buy back in the quarter?

Ron Ohsberg (Senior VP and CFO)

I think it was $10,000.

Laurie Hunsicker (Senior Analyst)

Okay, great. Thanks for taking my question.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Laurie.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have no further questions, so I'll pass you back over to Ned Handy for any closing comments.

Ned Handy (Chairman and CEO)

Great. Thanks, Lydia, and thanks, everybody. I hope we presented a clear picture of the current state and our focus going forward. As we near our company's 225th birthday next month, we want to say thank you to our customers for entrusting us as their partner along their journeys, to our employees, past and present, for bringing their expertise and heart to every customer interaction, and to our shareholders for continuing to support our vision and investing in community banking in general. We certainly appreciate your time today and look forward to speaking to you all again soon. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.

Operator (participant)

This concludes our call today. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.