BINGHAMTON – Ideally, NBT Bancorp’s leadership would have liked the bank’s closing stock price of $21.95 per share Monday to have been higher for its annual shareholders meeting Tuesday morning, company officials said.
Ideal situations, however, haven’t necessarily been in the cards for NBT or the industry lately, bank President/CEO Martin Dietrich and Board Chairman Daryl Forsythe told the corporation’s over 100 shareholders gathered inside the Binghamton Holiday Inn galleria.
But in the bank’s case, where there’s been adversity there’s also been unprecedented success – considering its continued streak in 2006 of achieving record earnings each of the past five years.
“These are incredibly challenging times in our industry,” said Dietrich. “We remain in line or above our peer group (of banks).”
Bank stock yielded a 12 percent compounded return with dividends in 2006, with a 16 percent return over the past five years – numbers at or above the average yields of the Nasdaq, Dow Jones, and the S&P 500, according to bank statistics.
However, at one point in 2005, NBT’s stock price reached nearly $27 per share. It’s now hovering at around $22, prompting one shareholder to ask, “If the company is doing well, why isn’t the stock doing so well?”
Dietrich, admitting “he wasn’t all that thrilled” with the current stock price either, contends the slide isn’t local to NBT.
“I would not describe this as something specific to NBT,” he said, explaining that regional banks have been experiencing “softness” in the market due to high interest rates. “It’s a short term phenomenon of the interest rate environment.”
The bank took advantage of what they see as an opportunity with the lower price, purchasing 373,967 shares of its common stock in the last quarter for around $22.90 each. The Board of Directors also authorized the purchase of 1,363,180 more between April and July if the price remains right.
“It (stock value) may not be at its best – but what a buying a opportunity,” said Forsythe, encouraging a round of laughter.
Despite the rate environment, which has created a rise in short-term costs and a decrease in long-term return rates across the country – referred to as margin compression – final numbers from 2006 show NBT topped out at $55.9 million in earnings. That’s $3.5 million more than in 2005, taking them past the $5.1 billion mark in total assets. Compared to other regional banks, similar in size, NBT is outdoing many of its competitors in both net interest and returns on average equity, two key factors in measuring a bank’s success, said Dietrich.
“We’re right on target,” he added.
