Audio Gap. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the future performance and financial condition of Civista Bancshares, Inc. that involve risks and uncertainties. Various factors could cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors are discussed in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the company's website. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. Additionally, management may refer to non-GAAP measures which are intended to supplement, but not substitute the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The press release, also available on the company's website, contains the financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today, as well as the reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP measures. This call will be recorded and made available on Civista Bancshares' website at www.civb.com. At the conclusion of Mr. Shaffer's remarks, he and the Civista management team will take any questions you may have. Now I will turn the call over to Mr. Shaffer. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. This is Dennis Shaffer, President and CEO of Civista Bancshares, and I would like to thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm joined today by Chuck Parcher, EVP of the company and President of the bank; Rich Dutton, SVP of the company and Chief Operating Officer; Ian Whinnem, SVP of the company and Chief Financial Officer; and other members of our executive team. This morning, we reported net income for the first quarter of $15 million or $0.72 per diluted share, which represents a $4.8 million or 47% increase over our first quarter of 2025 and a $2.7 million or 22% increase over our linked quarter. This also represented an increase in pre-provision net revenue of $3.8 million or 29% over our first quarter in 2025 and a $3.2 million or 3.8% increase over our linked quarter. Our first quarter highlights include the successful completion of the core system conversion of the Farmers Savings Bank that we acquired during the fourth quarter of 2025. As a result, our first quarter earnings include what should be the last expenses associated with the acquisition. These one-time expenses impacted our first quarter net income by approximately $400,000 or $0.02 per common share. For the quarter, core deposit funding increased organically by over $60 million. This allowed us to reduce brokered deposits by $25 million. This represents the sixth consecutive quarter in which we reduced the brokered funding. Our net interest margin expanded by 16 basis points to 3.85% as we continued our disciplined approach to managing our asset pricing and funding costs. Our earning asset yield for the quarter increased by 5 basis points over our linked quarter to 5.66%. Our cost of funds was 1.96% for the quarter, down 35 basis points from the first quarter of 2025 and 12 basis points from the linked quarter, while our cost of deposits was 1.81%, down 19 basis points year-over-year and 11 basis points sequentially. Our decline in funding cost was largely attributable to $125 million of brokered CDs that matured in late December that carried a weighted average rate of 4.23%. We were able to replace and reduce these matured brokered CDs with $100 million in brokered CDs with a weighted average rate of 3.87%, representing a savings of 36 basis points in addition to reducing the amount of brokered funding. Net interest income for the quarter was $37.8 million, which represents an increase of $5.1 million or 15% compared to the first quarter of 2025 and an increase of $1.4 million or 4% compared to our linked quarter. Despite loan balances being down, we had strong loan production across our footprint during the quarter that was offset by significant payoffs. Our lending teams generated $214 million of new loan production during the quarter that was offset by $83 million in early payoffs in addition to normal principal pay down. Our ROA for the quarter was 1.41%. Our ROE for the quarter improved to 10.97%, and our tangible book value per share improved to $19.70. Our continued strong financial performance and ability to consistently create capital gives us options as we think about the best ways to deploy our capital. Earlier this week, we announced a quarterly dividend of $0.18 per share, which is consistent with our prior dividend, and the renewal of our stock repurchase program authorizing management to repurchase up to $25 million in outstanding common shares. During the quarter, noninterest income declined by $453,000 or 4.6% from our linked quarter and increased $1.6 million or 20% over the first quarter of 2025. The primary driver of the decline from our linked quarter was a $336,000 decline in card fees due to the typical elevated spending that comes during the holiday. The primary drivers of the increase in noninterest income over the prior year were a $190,000 increase in service charges, a $1 million increase in net gains on loan and lease sales, and a $444,000 increase in other income related to reserves that have been established at our insurance subsidiary for claims that subsequently never materialized. Noninterest expense declined by $1.1 million or 3.6% from our linked quarter and increased $2.7 million or 10% over the prior year. The decline from our linked quarter was a result of a commission accrual adjustment in the fourth quarter of 2025. Our actual commission expense was $1.4 million lower than what had been accrued and was adjusted in the fourth quarter. We are now adjusting all accruals at least quarterly. The primary driver of the increase in noninterest expense over the prior year was a $2.2 million increase in compensation expense associated with increased salaries, commissions and medical expenses. In addition to annual increases, our average FTE employees increased from 520 in the first quarter of last year to 535 in the first quarter of 2026. Much of the increase in FTEs came from the employees that joined us through our recent Farmers acquisition. We also had $400,000 in other expenses that we believe will be the last significant expenses related to the acquisition. Our efficiency ratio for the quarter improved to 60.1% compared to 64.9% for the prior year first quarter. Our effective tax rate was 16.8% for the quarter. Turning our focus to the balance sheet. Strong loan production across our footprint was offset by significant payoffs during the quarter. Our lending teams generated $214 million of new loan production during the quarter that was offset by $83 million in payoffs in addition to normal principal pay down. This compares to the prior year's first quarter, when we originated $181 million in new loans and we experienced $21 million in loan payoffs. We consider these good payoffs, as they were successful real estate projects that were sold or taken to the permanent market. We also had a few loans to operating companies that were sold during the quarter and paid off their loans. Loan production grew with each month's production during the quarter from $49 million in January to $59 million in February to $106 million in March. During the quarter, new and renewed commercial loans were originated at an average rate of 6.52%, and leases were originated at an average rate of 9.03%. Additionally, our undrawn construction lines were $175 million at quarter-end compared to $161 million at year-end. We ended the quarter with a loan-to-deposit ratio of 92%. Loans secured by office buildings make up only 4.7% of our total loan portfolio. As we have stated previously, these loans are not secured by high rise metro office buildings; rather, they are predominantly secured by single or two-story offices located outside of central business districts. We also have very little exposure to non-deposit financial institutions. As a commercial real estate lending bank, we are mindful of our non-owner occupied CRE concentration and continue to diversify our loan portfolio. At March 31, 2026, our CRE to risk-based capital ratio was 261%. While we experienced a reduction in total loans during the quarter, loan demand remains solid in each of our markets, and our pipelines continue to grow. At March 31, 2026, our residential mortgage loan pipeline was up 25%, and our commercial loan pipeline was up 102% over the prior year. We anticipate growing the loan portfolio at a mid-single-digit rate over the balance of the year. On the funding side, total deposits increased $35.4 million or an annualized growth rate of 4%. However, if we back out the brokered deposits, our core deposit balances grew by $60.4 million or 8% for the quarter. This represents six of the last seven quarters in which we have grown our core deposit balances while reducing our cost of funds. Much of this growth came in interest-bearing demand accounts and in our savings and money market accounts. This increase in lower rate deposits, combined with our continued shift from brokered deposits to more core deposit funding, contributed to an 11 basis point decline in our cost of deposits from the linked quarter. Our deposit base remains fairly granular, with our average deposit count, excluding CDs, approximately $28,000. Other than the $523 million of public funds, which are primarily operating accounts with various municipalities across our footprint, we had no deposit concentrations at quarter-end. Our commercial bankers, treasury management officers, private bankers and retail staff continue to have success gathering additional deposits from our commercial, small business and retail customers, as evidenced by our organic deposit growth. We believe our low-cost deposit franchise continues to be one of Civista's most valuable characteristics, contributing significantly to our solid net interest margin and overall profitability. We view our securities portfolio as a significant source of liquidity. At quarter-end, our securities portfolio totaled $682 million, which represented 16% of our balance sheet, and when combined with our cash balances, represents 22% of our total deposits. Our securities are classified as available for sale and had $49 million or approximately 7% of unrealized losses associated with them. Civista's strong earnings continue to create capital, and our overall goal remains to maintain our capital at a level that supports organic growth and allows for prudent investment into our company. Earlier this week, we announced a $0.18 per share dividend based on the quarter-end market close of $22.79. This represents an annualized yield of 3.16% and a payout ratio of 25%. We view this as a sign of confidence management and our Board of Directors have in Civista's ability to continue generating strong earnings. Additionally, Civista's Board of Directors increased and renewed a $25 million common share repurchase authorization earlier this week. While we have not repurchased any shares over the past several quarters, our regulatory capital and tangible common equity ratios are strong and continue to grow. We continue to believe our stock is a value, and we'll continue to evaluate repurchase opportunities. During the quarter, we made a $768,000 credit to our provision and had net charge-offs of $716,000. The credit to our provision was attributable to lower expected losses due to lower outstanding loans and our continued strong credit metrics. Our ratio of the allowance for credit losses to total loans is 1.26% at March 31, 2026, which is consistent with the 1.28% at December 31, 2025. Similarly, our ratio of allowance to nonperforming loans of 135% was virtually unchanged when comparing the same periods. Other than the general concern over the impact of macroeconomic uncertainties, the economy across Ohio and Southeastern Indiana is showing no sign of deterioration, and our credit quality remains strong. In summary, we are very pleased with the continued expansion in our net interest margin, our ability to generate noninterest income from diversified revenue streams and to control our noninterest expense. We're also very pleased with our team's success in attracting more lower cost funding, which allowed us to continue reducing our dependency on brokered funding and anticipate mid-single-digit deposit and loan growth for the balance of 2026. Overall, 2026 is off to a good start, and our focus continues to be on creating shareholder value. Thank you for your attention this afternoon and in your investment. And now we'll be happy to address any questions you may have.

Operator Instructions. Our first question comes from the line of Brendan Nosal from Hovde Group.

Maybe just starting off here on the loan growth outlook. I get the moving pieces this quarter. It sounds like origination activity is quite strong, but the payoffs were a significant headwind for this quarter. As you look ahead, what gives you confidence that payoff levels will decline such that you can get back to that mid-single-digit pace of growth?

We watch those closely. This is Chuck. We watch those closely. We've got a couple of other large ones we know that we're going to look at here in the second quarter, but we still think we're going to see some growth in the second quarter. And we feel like that mid-single-digit outlook is pretty good looking forward. I've got confidence in—as Dennis mentioned in his comments, our pipeline today is twice as large as it was in the pipeline at the same time last year. And we just need to get those to the closing table. And based on the production we had in the first quarter, as Dennis also alluded to, our undrawn construction funds are $14 million higher at the end of this quarter than they were at the end of the year. So we feel good about forecasting out that mid-single digits.

And first quarter typically is slower for us, too, Brendan, just because we do some construction-type commercial loans. And as Chuck alluded to, I think we put on a lot of balances there towards the end of the first quarter, and some of those were construction projects that we expect those funds will draw up.

Okay. Maybe pivoting to the net interest margin. A lot of margin expansion this quarter, certainly more than I was expecting. As we look ahead, if we're in an environment where we don't get any more Fed rate cuts this year, how do you see the margin trending from this quarter's 3.85% level?

Brendan, this is Ian. So second quarter, we expect flat to maybe a little bit of expansion, 1 to 2 basis points. And then likely putting that in the mid- to upper 3.80s and then leveling out in the high 3.80s in Q3 and beyond. That's with no rate cuts being planned. If there is a rate cut, we expect that to be maybe 1 to 2 basis points lower. If there's a rate increase at the end of the year, it could be 1 to 2 basis points higher.

And Brendan, we do have about $60 million of loans repricing in the second quarter and I think about $140 million after that for the remainder of the year. So a couple of hundred million dollars of loans will reprice from the 4.75% range to reprice today in the 6s.

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Rulis from D.A. Davidson.

Late last year, we had discussions of the bank putting up $0.75 in quarterly earnings towards the end of '26, implying a $3 annual run rate. It kind of seems like you pulled that forward 9 to 12 months; you're basically at that—at the core level. As you think about where you reorient with kind of the outlook from here, not to put you on the spot of earnings, but how do you meet that opportunity while also as you talked about the buyback?

I would say, Jeff, part of the earnings lift this time was that provision. We didn't have to fund any loan growth. That's going to cost us a couple of cents every quarter, on top of the couple of cents reduction that we got this quarter. So from a normalized basis, that $0.72 is probably more in the mid-60s. So not quite into that run rate of $0.75 yet, but we do still anticipate getting there towards the end of this year, maybe into the first quarter next year.

Got it. Appreciate that. And then on the expense run rate, I think we talked previously that as merit increases kick in, in the second quarter, offset by maybe some conversions complete. So just trying to walk through the quarterly progression, do you see sort of flat linked quarter on a core basis and then maybe some savings? Or how do you see the outlook on run rate?

So excluding the nonrecurring items, we're at $29.4 million for the first quarter. So that would include some of the, I'll call them, duplicative operating expenses pre-conversion, having two cores and some staff that's no longer with Civista. So we've also done reinvestment back into the company by hiring some revenue-generating colleagues, some marketing spend and some tech improvements. So with that, we're anticipating second quarter being $29.5 million to $30 million, and then probably a little bit of an expansion maybe to $30 million to $30.7 million in the third quarter and fourth quarter.

But we have merit increases that took effect April 1. So that's in those expense numbers that Ian's guidance reflects.

Okay. And so any sort of cost saves offset by investment getting to that run rate that you outlined?

Yes, that's correct. It's helping to fund some of those cost investments or spend investments that were just mentioned.

Your next question comes from the line of Adam Kroll from Piper Sandler.

Maybe just starting on deposits, some really impressive core deposit growth during the quarter. Given some of the recent investments you made on the tech side, I was just curious, how large of a contributor was the digital channel to that growth and maybe overall prospects within that segment?

Well, we think it's helping some. Most of our investments are aimed at making it easier to do business with us. So it is helping. We have all set up to do online account opening now with our digital apps and features. So we are getting that. The bigger thing that's helping us in some of the deposit growth, at least the organic stuff, is just some of the recent disruption within our marketplace. Ohio has had quite a bit of disruption. We think by the investments we made in technology and making it easier to do business with us, and then that disruption, we think we're very well positioned to attract new clients to the bank and to expand existing relationships. Our teams are doing a fantastic job with their calling efforts. We're being really collaborative, and we're going to market as a team. Through their efforts and by making it easier to do business with us and with that disruption, that's the reason behind a lot of that deposit growth.

Got it. I appreciate the color there. Sticking on the funding side, deposit costs came down quite nicely during the quarter. Are you still seeing opportunities to reduce funding costs on both the maturity and non-maturity side if the Fed were to remain on hold?

So right now—this is Ian—if rates stay flat on the CDs that are maturing, we're renewing those or picking up these fees at about the same. Staying with those brokers, we're not going to see that significant increase that we saw from the Q4 maturities into Q1. So we have some wiggle room on some of our non-maturities. For the most part, I think most of that's passed and we will be staying about the same.

Got it. And last one for me. Ian, I was wondering if you had the purchase accounting accretion number for the quarter?

I will have to follow up with you on that.

Your next question comes from the line of Tim Switzer from KBW.

Well, first off, congrats on the retirement announcement, Dennis, and to Chuck on becoming CEO—exciting news.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Most of my questions have been asked already, but the first one I had is on deposit competition. There's been some chatter about it picking up a little bit. Can you talk about what you guys are seeing in your markets and if there's any specific geographies or deposit categories where it's been a little bit more intense?

I would tell you—this is Chuck—I think it's almost equally intense across almost all of our major metro markets. Obviously, the most banked of all the cities is Columbus, so we're probably seeing a little bit more pressure there from the rate side. But we've held our own pretty well, as you can tell by the deposit growth that we've had. And we feel like we're priced properly to continue to retain our clients and grow at that mid-single-digit pace. So it is very competitive. We're still seeing some banks with some four handles, and we're kind of in the high threes right now, but we feel good about where we're positioned.

We're really just focused on relationships, growing relationships and providing value and providing solutions for our clients. Again, attacking the market from a team perspective by bringing different business lines into meetings with many of our business customers has been working for us, and that's going to be our focus. With that disruption, I think it gives us opportunity.

To Dennis' point, the disruption—in some of the bigger players in our market, Huntington, Fifth Third, KeyBank, First Financial—are all working on acquisitions, not just in Ohio, but in other regions. I feel like their eye is off the ball a little bit on Ohio. Our biggest competition is coming, really, from some of the smaller institutions from a rate perspective, not from a competitive service perspective.

Got it. Very helpful. And then the last question I had was in terms of credit. Any areas that have caused you guys to want to pull back at all, or any levels of concern? And do you have exposure to any end market that could maybe be exposed by the higher oil prices?

Go ahead, Mike.

This is Mike. No, we're not seeing anything that's market-specific or industry-specific right now that's causing us any concerns, especially to pull back on any areas.

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Breese from Stephens.

I wanted to just touch on the NIM a little bit. I know you didn't have an accretable yield at your fingertips, but maybe you could help me out. To what extent did prepayment fees play a role this quarter in loan yields and the NIM? Was that a factor? And is that a factor in your more stable guide in the back half of the year?

This is Ian. No, the payoffs really didn't impact the NIM that way. We got a little bit of fee income on those, just breakage fees, but nothing in the NIM. And as Dennis mentioned earlier, we have a lot of loans that are just going to be repricing in the remainder of the year. So they're going to be moving from these mid 4s into the low 6s. That's the stuff that we saw come across the first quarter. We'll continue to see for the remainder of the year, with some NIM lift coming from that.

Yes. The biggest NIM lift again was the repricing of that brokered CD and the reduction of it. We reduced by $25 million, then we repriced $100 million and picked up 36 basis points. That contributed significantly. On the fee income side, most of those fees were generated by our residential mortgage teams and our leasing group, who both had much better production results than a year ago. So that's where a lot of the fees came from.

Understood. You had mentioned some of the fixed-rate repricing. Outside of loans that are pure floating priced off prime or SOFR, what is the cash flow schedule and maturity schedule for fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans for the rest of the year? And new origination yields I'm assuming are kind of in the mid- to high 6s. Is that accurate?

That's correct. For repricing, we're somewhere in that 6.5% range as far as new loans going on and things that would adjust. Most of the real estate loans are written on five-year adjustables, and the average margin on those is probably 2.75% over a five-year treasury. That would take us to maybe 6.5% to 6.6% today.

Just the loans that are either fixed-rate or adjustable—quarterly maturities or cash flows. You had mentioned that what's maturing is going from a 4-handle to a 6-handle. I want to get some sense for how much is going to mature this year.

I would tell you, over the next 12 months, we have a little over $200 million.

Yes. $60 million of that will happen in the next quarter, in Q2. The balance of it is the rest of the year.

You had mentioned brokered being a big area of deposit cost pickup. How much of that is maturing over the next three quarters? And what are the rates—or what is the estimated rate on the stuff that's maturing?

We have some that's maturing this month that was at 3.70%, repricing a little bit under 4%. Then we have about another $125 million maturing still this quarter. That's in that 3.80% range. And then a little bit in September.

We would stay relatively short on all of that. So it's going to reprice pretty close to where it's at, maybe a little bit higher. But again, our plan is to continue to gather deposits and reduce brokered. That helps offset some of that, too.

Last one for me is just on Reg E production that you keep for yourselves and put on the balance sheet versus pursue the secondary market and gain on sale. What is kind of the breakdown of that? Did it shift more towards gain on sale this quarter? Seasonality-wise, I would expect gain on sale to be down this quarter, but you were up modestly. How was that breakdown?

Our breakdown by number has been about 60% sold, 40% portfolio. By balance, that probably runs close to 50-50, because the stuff we hold on the balance sheet is usually our private banking, physician loans and some of the higher balance construction. So dollar volume is about 50-50, number is about 60-40. We feel like it's going to probably continue to trend that way. If we get any kind of blip downward in interest rates, we'll see a little bit more refinance action, and that refinance action is normally much more 80-20 sold versus held. But that's been the run rate here over the last couple of quarters.

Your next question comes from the line of Adam Kroll from Piper Sandler.

Just a follow-up. A pretty strong start to the year on the core fee income side. I know leasing can jump around, but how are you thinking about core fee income growth for the remainder of the year?

For noninterest income, strong first quarter—the mortgage and commercial loan fees recovered compared to this time last year. We did have a captive reinsurance reserve release in the first quarter that would be nonrecurring and only a small amount of security gains. When we adjust for seasonality of gain on sale, we're thinking Q2 comes in between $9.1 million and $9.5 million and then maybe increasing another $0.25 million in the third quarter due to seasonality on gain on sale.

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Cardenas from Brean Capital.

Given the market disruption that we've seen in Ohio, what kind of opportunities is that presenting for you on the talent addition side?

It's been really good for us, Dan. We've had some people move and we have reassigned or promoted internally. We've done a really good job of picking up talent from institutions that have had M&A activity. The Westfield deal, for instance, provided some recent hires—our new Treasurer just came over and started a month ago from that institution. It's been very good for us to upgrade talent.

Excellent. And then I know you just completed the Farmers Savings Bank deal, but as you look at future acquisitions, geographically, where do you see yourself targeting?

I think we'll be very similar to our historical approach. Ohio and the adjoining states is about as far as we would look right now. If it's a fill-in opportunity, that's preferable to an add-on in other locations. We won't jump to distant states; we'll stick to our knitting within Ohio and the adjoining states.

Our first priority is organic initiatives that create sustainable value. We've invested in technology to make it easier to do business with us, and with the current disruption, we think we're well positioned to attract new clients and deepen relationships. We maintain dialogue with many banks in our footprint, but any acquisition would need to be strategically and financially compelling. Our main focus is building capacity from within and prioritizing organic development.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Shaffer. Please continue.

Okay. Well, in closing, I just want to thank everyone for their investment in Civista and for joining today's call. Our first quarter results were due in large part to the hard work and discipline of our team. I'm very pleased with this quarter's accomplishments, our strong financial results and just the disciplined approach that we have here in managing Civista. I remain very confident that we are well positioned for long-term future success. I look forward to talking to you all again in a few months to share our second quarter results. Thank you for your time today.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.