United Bancorp, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial
Condition and Results of Operations
The following discusses the financial condition of the Company as of June 30, 2022, as compared to December 31, 2021, and the results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, compared to the same period in 2021. This discussion should be read in conjunction with the interim condensed consolidated financial statements and related footnotes included herein.
Introduction
United Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: UBCP) reported diluted earnings per share of $0.40 and net income of $2,297,000 for the three months ended June 30, 2022, increases of $0.02 per share and $113,000 over the previous year. For the first six months of the current year, UBCP reported diluted earnings per share of $0.70 and net income of $4,048,000.
We are pleased to report on the earnings performance of our Company for the second quarter and the first six months of 2022. For the quarter ending June 30, 2022, our Company achieved net income of $2,297,000 and diluted earnings per share of $0.40, which were respective increases of $113,000, or 5.2%, and $0.02, or 5.3%, over the previous year. For the six months ending June 30, 2022, our Company produced net income of $4,048,000 and diluted earnings per share of $0.70, which were both respectively lower than the same period the previous year by $44,000 and $0.01. As our economy has normalized over the course of the current year and heated-up with inflation being at over forty-year highs, we have capitalized on opportunities in the first six months of 2022 to change the mix of assets on our balance sheet. With the tightening bias of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) with monetary policy beginning in the first quarter of this year and becoming much stronger over the course of the most recently ended quarter, we have experienced a prime opportunity to invest, once again, in both municipal and agency securities as both intermediate and longer-term yields have risen to levels that we have not seen for a couple of years. Having remained patient and not invested in any municipal or agency securities since the first quarter of 2020 until this year, we are presently pleased with this opportunity that we have to change the overall mix of our balance sheet from a more cash-intensive, liquid position to one that is longer-duration and higher yielding. Although our total assets were slightly lower on a year-over-year basis as of mid-year, totaling $719.1 million versus $730.3 million the previous year, this reduction is primarily due to the unrealized loss in our securities portfolio. Even with this decline in our total assets, we have seen both our gross loans and securities and other restricted stock increase. As of June 30, 2022, gross loans increased by $8.7 million, or 1.9%, over the previous year to a level of $467.4 million. Regarding securities and other restricted stock, we saw our balances increase year-over-year by $45.6 million, or 30.7%, to a level of $193.9 million. Of significance is the quarter-ending balances for both gross loans and securities and other restricted stock are at higher levels than their respective quarterly averages by $8.3 million and $34.5 million. With the changing mix of and added horsepower to our balance sheet in the first six months of 2022, we have seen for the first time since the second quarter of 2020 (which was the first full quarter impacted by the pandemic) an increase in the level of interest income that we generated. During the second quarter of 2022, we experienced a year-over-year increase in our level of interest income realized of $213,000 or 3.4%. We are optimistic that we will continue to see improvement in the level of interest income that we will generate in the coming quarters.
Considering the increase in the level of interest income that we generated and the continued reduction in our total interest expense in the second quarter ending June 30, 2022, our Company experienced an increase in the net interest income that it realized during the quarter of $411,000 or 7.4%. We were able to achieve this increase in our net interest income because we continued to have success in the current year in lowering our overall interest expense. In the second quarter, our interest expense decreased by $198,000, or 29.3%, from the previous year. Even though our ability to lower the interest expense of our Company will diminish as the monetary policy of the FOMC tightens, we believe that the increase in the level of the interest income that we realize will outpace the degree to which interest expense increases in the current year; thus, continuing the increasing trend in our Company’s net interest income. Interestingly, we reduced our interest expense levels even though our total deposits increased by $3.2 million, to a level of $607.3 million. We achieved this by attracting lower-cost funding, consisting of demand and savings balances, and reducing our higher-cost time balances. As of June 30, 2022, our lower-cost demand and savings balances increased on a year-over-year basis by $27.6 million, or 5.2%, to a level of $562.4 million. During this same timeframe, our higher-cost time balances decreased by $24.5 million, or 35.3%, to a level of $44.9 million. As of June 30, 2022 and on a linked-quarter basis, we saw our net interest margin increase by nine basis points from 3.45% to 3.54%. We anticipate this positive trend to continue for the remainder of the current year.
Over the course of the first six months of 2022, our Company’s bottom-line net income was impacted by the inflationary and rising-rate environment in which we are presently operating. As of June 30, 2022, with the decline in some of our fee-income related lines of business (primarily relating to mortgage origination), our non-interest income declined by $94,000 or 4.5%. In addition, total noninterest