Bank of the Ozarks Inc. of Little Rock on Monday reported first-quarter net income of $51.7 million, a new record, and up nearly 30 percent from the same quarter last year.
The publicly traded company (Nasdaq: OZRK) also reported diluted earnings per share was 57 cents, up 21 percent from same quarter last year.
In a news release, CEO George Gleason said the company's "potent combination of strong growth, pristine asset quality, superb net interest margin and great efficiency" helped it achieve record results.
"We are very pleased with our outstanding first quarter results, highlighted by our $1.06 billion quarterly growth in non-purchased loans and leases and our [$580 million] quarterly growth in the unfunded balance of closed loans," he said. "This excellent growth was achieved while adhering to our very conservative credit principles, as evidenced by some of our best asset quality ratios as a public company, including an annualized net charge-off ratio of just 0.05 percent."
Total loans and leases, including purchased loans, were $9.27 billion as of March 31, up nearly 46 percent from $6.36 billion at March 31, 2015. Deposits were $9.63 billion, up 43 percent. Total assets were $11.43 billion, up 38 percent.
Quarterly net interest income was a record $112.5 million, up about 32 percent from the first quarter of 2015. Non-interest income was $19.9 million, down 32 percent.
The company's first-quarter efficiency ratio improved to 35.5 percent compared to 42.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015.
During the quarter, Bank of the Ozarks announced a record-setting, $800 million all-stock deal to purchase Community & Southern Bank of Atlanta, which has $4.4 billion in assets, and a $402.5 million all-stock deal to buy C1 Financial Inc. of St. Petersburg, Florida, and its wholly owned bank subsidiary, C1 Bank, which has $1.7 billion in assets.
Both deals, and other recent acquisitions, were enough to push the company beyond the $10 billion-asset threshold, putting the company in at a new level of regulatory oversight under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act of 2010.