Available for sale securities increased to $1.46 billion at March 31, 2022 from $1.43 billion at December 31, 2021. The Company continued to purchase securities in the first quarter of 2022 to invest excess cash and to take advantage of the increase in U.S. treasury rates. While providing more attractive rates for investment purposes, the rise in U.S. treasury rates during the quarter also resulted in a gross unrealized loss of $100.7 million at March 31, 2022, compared to a gross unrealized gain of $11.7 million at December 31, 2021. The volatility in the bond market is expected to continue in 2022, which may result in increased volatility in the fair value of the Company’s available for sale securities.
Total deposits at March 31, 2022, were $3.69 billion compared to $3.55 billion at December 31, 2021. The increase of $146.6 million since December 31, 2021 is due to seasonality in public fund balances and continued growth in business and consumer deposits. In addition, the Company added $40.0 million in brokered deposits during the quarter.
Total stockholders’ equity decreased to $393.9 million at March 31, 2022, compared to $472.4 million at December 31, 2021. The decrease in stockholders’ equity was primarily due to an $88.8 million decline in accumulated other comprehensive income and dividends paid to stockholders offset by net income for the quarter. As mentioned previously, the rapid increase in U.S. treasury rates had a negative effect on the value of the Company’s available for sale securities, and in turn, the dollar amount that flows through accumulated other comprehensive income. This also had a negative impact on the Company’s tangible book value per share (non-GAAP), which declined to $8.58 at March 31, 2022 from $10.91 at December 31, 2021.
Credit Quality
Non-performing loans to loans declined to 0.61% at March 31, 2022, compared to 0.69% at December 31, 2021 as the Company sold the note of one large non-performing loan and wrote off a large portion of another non-performing loan, which was specifically reserved. Early stage delinquencies, defined as 30-89 days delinquent, were $7.3 million, or 0.32% of total loans, at March 31, 2022, compared to $8.9 million, or 0.38% of total loans at December 31, 2021.
The allowance for credit losses for the first quarter of 2022 includes net charge-offs of $1.4 million and a recovery for credit losses of $930,000 offset by a provision for unfunded loans of $572,000. This compares to net charge-offs of $84,000 and a provision for credit losses of $425,000 for the same period in 2021. The net charge-offs were driven by the one loan mentioned above. As an overall percentage of loans, the allowance for credit losses declined to 1.17% at March 31, 2022, compared to 1.26% at December 31, 2021. Total net charge-offs as a percentage of average net loans was 25 basis points for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, compared to 2 basis points for the first quarter of 2021.
Net Interest Income
Net interest income was $31.2 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to $25.3 million for the first quarter of 2021. The increase was due to growth in average interest earning assets, including the acquisition of Cortland Bancorp (“Cortland”), offset by a decline in net interest margin of 27 basis points. The net interest margin was 3.27% for the first quarter of 2022 compared to 3.33% for the fourth quarter of 2021 and 3.54% for the first quarter of 2021. The decline in net interest margin in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021 was driven by the acquisition of Cortland, lower PPP income in 2022 compared to 2021 and a greater percentage of earning assets invested in securities rather than loans. Excluding the impact of acquisition marks and related accretion and PPP interest and fees, the net interest margin (non-GAAP) for the first quarter of 2022 was 3.12% compared to 3.21% for the fourth quarter of 2021 and 3.35% for the first quarter of 2021.
Noninterest Income
Noninterest income increased to $17.7 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to $10.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The first quarter of 2022 increased over the same period in 2021 primarily due to $8.4 million in income related to the proceeds of a one-time legal settlement and increases in other noninterest income categories offset by a decline in security gains of $499,000 and a decline in net gains on the sale of loans of $1.8 million. The net gain on sale of loans has declined because of lower origination volumes due to increasing rates along with tighter gain on sale margins. Other categories of noninterest income that increased year over year include service charges on deposit accounts - $337,000 increase, bank owned life insurance - $125,000 increase, trust fees - $283,000 increase, investment commissions - $190,000 increase and debit card and EFT fees - $245,000 increase.
Noninterest Expense
Total noninterest expense for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 was $30.5 million compared to $17.3 million in the first quarter of 2021. The increase in expense year over year was due to the Company making a charitable contribution of $6.0 million to the Farmers Charitable Foundation, $2.1 million in legal expense associated with the legal settlement and $1.9 million in merger expense incurred in the first quarter of 2022. The increase in the other categories of noninterest expense was due to the Cortland acquisition which closed on November 1, 2021. The system conversion for Cortland also didn’t take place until late February so the Company did not have a full quarter of cost savings in place for the first quarter of 2022.