Fulton Financial Corp (FULT) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fulton Financial Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer section. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Pat Lafferty, Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

And thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the third quarter ending September 30, 2026. Your host for today's conference call is Kurt Meyers, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President. Joining Kurt is Rick Kramer, Chief Financial Officer. Our comments today will refer to the financial information and related slide presentation included with our earnings announcement, which we released yesterday afternoon. These documents can be found on our website at FULT.com by clicking on investor relations, and then on news. These slides can also be found on the events and presentations page under investor relations on our website. Today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements. These statements represent our expectations about the future and are subject to risk and uncertainty. Our actual results may differ materially from these statements. Please refer to our earnings release and related slide presentation under the heading forward-looking statements for a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ. In discussing Fulton's performance, representatives of Fulton may refer to certain non-GAAP financial Please refer to the supplemental financial information included with Fulton's earnings announcement released yesterday in slides 26 through 33 of today's presentation for a reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures. Now, I would like to turn the call over to your host, Kurt Myers.

Well, thanks, Pat, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I'll share a few details on our third quarter performance and provide some observations on current business trends. Then Rick will review our financial results in more detail and discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2026. After our prepared remarks we'd be happy to take any questions you may have. The third quarter represented another period of strong performance for Fulton. Throughout the quarter we supported our current customers, added new customers, executed on our strategy, and delivered value for shareholders. This all resulted in record financial results. Our strategy is centered around four priorities. Grow the company, deliver effectively for customers, operate with excellence, and serve all of our stakeholders. We believe these priorities provide a disciplined framework for operating the company, and we continue to perform across each of these priority areas during the quarter. In support of our growth objectives, we continued investing in talent and capabilities across our businesses. Year-to-date, we increased our commercial sales force by 14%, with over two-thirds of that growth occurring during the third quarter. These hires included experienced bankers, business development professionals, who are helping expand customer relationships, complementing our strategic acquisitions in northern New Jersey and Philadelphia. These actions, combined with ongoing investments in commercial banking capabilities, including treasury management enhancements and embedded banking solutions, are helping us win new customer relationships. This is most evident this quarter in our commercial deposit growth as we added new customers at an accelerated pace, and we grew commercial deposits materially. Additionally, our process improvements are helping our teams serve customers more effectively and driving meaningful efficiency gains. We've expanded the use of Salesforce AI-enabled capabilities across the organization, powered by coworker. Our adoption has been so effective that our progress was recognized by Salesforce at Dreamforce, where Fulton was highlighted for its innovation and partnership. These investments and enhanced usage are helping improve productivity, customer engagement, and support our long-term efficiency objectives. Collectively, these efforts contributed to another quarter of strong performance. Profitability reached a record high. Operating net income available to common shareholders increased to $119.8 million, or $0.62 per diluted share. Operating PPNR increased to $156 million. Operating return on average tangible common equity improved to 15.94%. And operating return on average assets increased to 1.4%. Additionally, our efficiency ratio improved to 56.8%, reflecting our continued focus on disciplined expense management. Our balance sheet also further improved during the quarter. customer deposits grew by approximately $1 billion, reflecting both new customer acquisition and growth within existing relationships. This further improved our funding profile as we reduced broker deposits and other wholesale funding. We believe this is a significant strength for the company as our diversified customer deposit base continues to provide stability, and support long-term balance sheet growth. While loan growth was modest during the quarter, underlying business activity remained solid. Customer engagement was high, and pipelines continued to show good momentum. Total loan originations increased 23 percent from the prior quarter, reflecting healthy production levels. As we look forward to 2027, we believe several of the headwinds to loan growth should abate. This coupled with increased production from the significant investments we are making in our people, capabilities, and market presence should accelerate growth. Our diversified business model continues to be a meaningful competitive advantage. Wealth management assets under management and administration reached a record $18.6 billion, and wealth management revenue grew more than 9% linked quarter. Commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking fees also increased from the prior quarter, highlighting broad-based growth across our fee businesses. As a result, non-interest income remained a meaningful contributor to overall performance, representing approximately 21% of total revenue. Our capital position remained strong during the quarter. we repurchased $56.1 million of common stock, returning capital to shareholders while still maintaining capital levels that provide flexibility to support customer needs, invest in the business, and pursue strategic opportunities. Tangible common equity ended the quarter at 8.4%, primarily reflecting the impact of AOCI, while our CET1 capital ratio remained stable at 12.2%. Credit quality remained favorable during the quarter, demonstrating the strength of our underwriting and risk management practices. Asset quality metrics improved, reserve levels remained solid, and we continue to view the overall credit environment as stable. Looking ahead, we are optimistic about the opportunities in front of us, our diverse business mix, loyal customer base, solid balance sheet, and experienced team provide a strong foundation for continued success. Overall, we are pleased with our third quarter performance, and we believe the company is well positioned. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick to review our third quarter financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Kurt, and good Good morning, everyone. Fulton delivered another quarter of solid financial performance, highlighted by continued earnings growth, healthy deposit generation, favorable credit results, and momentum across our fee-based businesses. For the third quarter, net income available to common shareholders was approximately $114.1 million, or 59 cents, per diluted share. Operating earnings were $119.8 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, compared to $115.9 million, or $0.60 per diluted share in the second quarter. The improvement in operating performance was driven primarily by higher net interest income and non-interest income and lower provision expense. Net interest income increased $5.8 million, or approximately 2%, linked quarter, to $290 million. Total purchase accounting accretion income was $12.9 million, consisting of $8.3 million related to the Republic acquisition and $4.6 million related to the Blue Foundry acquisition. This compares with $15.1 million in the prior quarter. Our net interest margin was 3.58% compared to 3.6% in the second quarter. Margin reflected lower purchase accounting accretion and the impact of carrying higher average cash balances during the quarter, which reduced margin by approximately two basis points. Average cash balances were approximately $1.1 billion compared to $842 million in the second quarter. Ending loans were relatively consistent during the quarter. Total loans grew by $44 million. Consumer-related portfolios grew $107 million, while commercial balances declined by $63 million, driven primarily by declining levels of commercial construction. Deposits totaled $28.8 billion at quarter end, an increase of $571 million compared to June 30. Growth was driven by strong customer deposit inflows across our commercial and public fund businesses. Demand and savings deposits increased $879 million during the quarter, including growth of $601 million in savings deposits and $324 million in interest-bearing demand deposits. As customer deposit balances increased almost $1 billion during the quarter, we continued to optimize the funding profile of the balance sheet. Broker deposits declined by $428 million during the quarter, ending at $547 million, while federal home loan bank advances were reduced by $553 million and fully paid off during the quarter. Non-interest income totaled $77.2 million during the quarter. While total non-interest income declined modestly from the second quarter, the prior quarter included approximately $6.9 million of income recognized from an equity method investment that was sold in the prior quarter. Wealth Management delivered another strong quarter, with revenue increasing $2.1 million in a quarter. Our commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking businesses continue to generate consistent When combined with wealth, these four businesses grew at a 4% rate linked quarter, or 16% annualized. Operating non-interest expense was $211.2 million compared to $210.6 million in the prior quarter. Items excluded from operating results included $5.6 million of intangible amortization and $1.7 million of acquisition-related expenses. Salaries and employee benefits increased during the quarter by approximately $5.6 million, primarily driven by higher incentive accruals, recruiting expense, and one additional day in the third quarter. Overall, operating expenses remain within our expected range, and Blue Foundry targeted cost days remain favorable to original estimates. We continue to invest in talent across the franchise to support future growth while maintaining disciplined expense management. Credit quality remains sound during the quarter, with asset quality metrics improving linked quarter. Net charge-offs were 0.14 percent of average loans compared to 0.34 percent in the prior quarter, while non-performing assets improved to 0.52 percent of total assets from 0.54 percent. The allowance for credit losses was 1.45 percent of loans compared to 1.48% last quarter. Provision expense totals $4.1 million, down from $4.9 million in the second quarter. Overall, portfolio performance remains stable, and our reserve position continues to provide solid coverage against inherent credit risk. Our capital remains a significant source of strength. Common equity Tier 1 capital was 12.2%, while total risk-based capital was 16%. Our tangible common equity ratio was 8.4%, which was impacted by changes and accumulated other comprehensive income. AOCI totaled approximately $370 million at September 30. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately $56.1 million of common stocks at an average price of $24.14, continuing our commitment to returning capital to shareholders while maintaining financial flexibility. On a year-to-date basis, we have repurchased 4.1 million shares at an average price of $22.58 per share. We have approximately $58 million remaining under our current share repurchase authorization. Our capital position remains strong and supports future growth opportunities, shareholder returns, and balance sheet flexibility. With one quarter remaining in the year, we are making the following updates to our 2026 operating guidance. Net interest income. We are raising the lower end of our range for NII by $5 million to $1.125 billion. We are lowering our range for loan loss provision to $30 million to $40 million. We are raising our non-interest income range to $295 million to $305 million. We are raising the lower end of our range for operating non-interest expense to $820 million. There are no changes to our outlook for full-year tax rates. And with that, I'll turn the call back to Kurt.

Thank you, Rick. The third quarter was another successful quarter for Fulton. We generated record financial results, maintained strong credit quality, and continued to return capital to shareholders. As we look ahead, we remain focused on serving customers, supporting our communities, and executing against our strategic priorities. We believe these investments we are making today position us well for future growth and long-term value creation. Operator, we'll now be happy to take questions.

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys. This is Tim DeLacy on for Danny this morning.

Morning, Tim.

Hey, morning. Hey, maybe just starting off on deposits. You know, it's pretty good customer deposit growth this quarter. I know that some of that reflects some of the normal seasonal rebound in municipal deposits, but you also kind of alluded to some of the commercial wins. You know, just curious if you can help us put a finer point on how much of the growth was impacted on, you know, from those seasonal flows and, you know, whether you'd expect some of the solid underlining momentum in the commercial deposits to continue.

Yeah, I appreciate that question. We had a really good quarter. So some of that is seasonal, municipal inflows, and it was supplemented then by really good core relational transactional deposit wins within commercial banking. So, you know, our treasury management platforms are solid. We're winning new customers. We really feel good about the wins to date. If you look at our business, as we've really ramped up commercial bankers, treasury bankers, we're building a lot of momentum and growing customers, and you really saw that in the quarter. So overall, just commercial growth was almost $600 million. Muni flows are about $400 million. So that's kind of the split between that. So you can see it's a really healthy split of just core transactional relational business that we're adding.

Okay, I appreciate that, Kurt. You know, and maybe just on the buyback, you know, a lot more active this quarter. You know, I know that you talk about a step up in the loan growth going here. You know, is this kind of a fair pace that we should expect on the buyback front? Or, you know, could we see a step down as the loan growth is expected to ramp up here?

Yeah, so in the quarter, it was certainly accelerated relative to the first and second quarter. We do have, you know, a fair amount of buyback remaining. It's really a strategic decision for us within the quarter based on what we see from a capital utilization standpoint. So as growth and capital accelerate, you would probably see that moderate to more historical levels. But we think that there's opportunity there within the quarter, and we've been pretty active. but we would probably expect that to moderate length quarter.

Okay. Appreciate that, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll step back.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Casey Hare with Autonomous. Your line is open.

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to touch on the loan growth. So it sounds like production up 23%. So pretty good there. It obviously didn't come through in the third quarter here. Can you give some color as to what the paydowns and payoffs were in the third quarter and where you expect that? Sounds like it's going to moderate, but what sort of, you know, how much can that, what kind of line of sight do you have on that moderating? Like, what level would that be going forward?

Yeah, we appreciate the question specifically on loans. You know, Consumer loans met expectations, were consistent, net balance growth, feel good about those businesses. To your point, commercial balances trailed expectations, mostly due to accelerated CRE payoffs above what we thought they were going to be in the quarter. And then specifically within that, it's really multifamily. If you look linked quarter and year over year, you know, multifamily payoffs were higher than we expected, and that market is competitive. So we're seeing rates and terms relative to when we originated those loans five or ten years ago, you know, just being more competitive. There's more players competing in that market as insurance companies, non-banks are in multifamily. So that was most of the story, linked quarter. So, you know, those are our customers. So we're keeping the customer, but in some cases losing those assets as we make choices around pricing and credit.

Okay. Okay. And then just switching to sort of the funding costs, deposit costs, and long-term NIM, can we get an update as to what you guys are thinking in terms of cumulative interest-bearing deposit beta through this Fed hike cycle and the spot deposit costs at 930, if you've got that?

Sure. Yeah, Casey, spot deposit costs were $190 in September. I would say from a beta perspective, you know, I'll answer a couple different ways, but if we look back at the last rate hike cycle, over the cycle, we had just under 40% betas. I will say that was probably a more unique cycle given the starting point. And those betas didn't really do a whole lot for the first, call it, you know, 18 months of that hike cycle. So, you know, it caught up really more towards the tail end. All that said, we do model historical betas into our forecast.

Okay, great.

And that that so that's 40 percent on a total basis and the the 190 that's for september right that's not 930 yeah that was september but a couple things just to point out right we um we do have um we have obviously a pretty substantial municipal portfolio about 70 percent of that is indexed so those deposits you know the cost on those move more immediate uh obviously following the september Fed hikes. So that gets reflected into that portion of the portfolio a little bit sooner and certainly faster than it shows up on the loan side. So just keep that in mind as you roll those deposit costs forward.

Yep, will do. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from David Conrad with KBW. Your line is open.

Yeah. Hey, good morning. I wanted to talk a little bit about maybe the star of the quarter, Wealth Management, I think it was up, you know, high single digits quarter over quarter. So, and I wouldn't think this would be a seasonally, you know, strong quarter. So, maybe the strength that you had, you know, outlier the success there and maybe what's the median term growth rate you expect in this business?

Yeah, I mean, the business performed well and the business has been performing well. I mean, we've had really consistent growth and performance in the wealth business overall. You know, what's driving that business really across the board, we're adding new advisors, we're winning new customers, we're winning more assets with existing customers. And then, you know, when that's coupled with some momentum and consistency in the market, you know, those things, you know, really have a tailwind and benefit. If you look at page 21 on the investor deck, I mean, I think something to highlight there is just the diversification and kind of full service of that business. As, you know, we look at, you know, mass affluent, institutional, and high net worth, like we're winning kind of in each of those categories. And, you know, we're a bank of choice for talent, so we've been adding talent in each of those categories as well. So we think that's sustainable, certainly has the tailwind of a good market right now. You know, that could go against you. But the core business of more wealth advisors, more customers, and winning assets for customers is just really solid.

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Matthew Brees with Stevens. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. you talked about this a little bit I was hoping for a little bit more specificity on recent hires across your footprint be curious in North Jersey in particular just how many teams and how that sets you up for growth next year you teased it a little bit but to the extent you hired folks does this improve the growth outlook from low single digits to mid single digits yeah I think we see growth accelerating.

I mean, a couple things on adding talent. So as I just mentioned in wealth, the same is true in commercial banking. You know, we're a bank of choice for really high caliber bankers. And as we make opportunities available to join our team, we've been really impressed with the caliber of folks and the amount of folks that want to join the team. So, you know, you look year over year, you know, we're up, we mentioned there, 14% new overall team, you know, that's 30 bankers. And you look at the production that 30 new kind of high caliber bankers can add to our existing team, that really gives us confidence, you know, to be even at a bigger balance sheet now compared to the last couple of years. We feel that gives us the origination momentum to grow certainly in that mid-single digit in all things being equal to maybe even accelerating. So we feel good about the momentum there.

Rick, you know, securities are up a little bit this quarter. Just curious if there's a good level of securities assets you'd kind of point us to. And then could you help me out on upcoming kind of cash flows for securities, there's still a pretty wide delta between average yields on the average balance sheet versus new stuff. I'm curious to what it's going to close that gap.

Yeah, thanks, Matt. I would say more of a medium term target. Securities assets, probably a point to a point and a half higher. They'll call it set targeting around 17%. That's probably over the next couple of years. In terms of in terms of cash flow, cash flow slowed a little bit during the quarter. I think they dropped from around, you know, previous quarter around 60, 65 a month down to around 50 a month. So some of that is obviously going to be, you know, level dependent, but obviously, you know, we're reinvesting even on shorter duration securities right now into, you know, well into the fives.

Okay. And then just last one, you know, given rate heights, potential for more rate hikes, shape of the curve. I would think that all bodes well for the NIM. Maybe help us out with direction and extent we might see NIM expansion in the next handful of quarters. That's all I have. Thank you.

I think the NIM has a stable to slightly higher trend to it. This quarter, as we alluded to, there was a lot of excess liquidity that did have a little bit of drag on margin in the short term. We carried a lot of that excess and wholesale liquidity through quarter end, so that will abate some of that pressure in near-term quarters. But certainly, if the Fed continues on a rate hike cycle and the curve stays at this shape, yeah, there's a tailwind to NII entonym. But I would expect, you know, to moderate, you know, somewhat dependent on, obviously, what deposit payters are. But directionally, feel good about it here.

I'll leave it there. Thank you. Our next question comes from Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Morning. This is Grant Zerlin on for Manuel. Well, thanks for the earlier color on the pace of the buyback. I was just wondering if you could provide some more specifics into capital deployment priorities and maybe a particular focus on what you would consider in bank M&A.

Yeah, thanks for that question. You know, our priorities remain the same, supporting organic growth, and then corporate initiatives, whether that's, you know, portfolios or banks, you know, different corporate initiatives, and then finally buyback. So we look at each of those buckets. We look at the forecast for that. We look at, you know, stock trading price and really, you know, make adjustments between those three categories. So as we see organic growth accelerate, you know, we want to deploy capital that way. On M&A, the last part of your question, that strategy is the same as well. You know, we're focused on that $1 to $5 billion bank. We've done a pretty good job, we feel, on two acquisitions over the last couple years on banks in that category that really add to and fill in our footprint. You know, we're really happy with North Jersey and the Blue Foundry acquisition, That acquisition, integration, pro forma is ahead of expectations, and we now are a much more major player in that market. That's the kinds of things that we want to do as we look forward, and that strategy remains the same.

Appreciate the color. Thank you. And then switching over to loan growth, could you just discuss a little more on the outlook into next year and what could drive an acceleration of trends here?

Yeah, as we mentioned, we're really building for 27 at this point. We've added commercial bankers. we have some you know just structural runoff and maturities abating if you look year over year so the things that we've done throughout this year we feel really position us for 27 to have that you know strategic long-term organic growth target in the the mid single digits as a base and if we can accelerate beyond that that's what we really like to do.

All right. Thank you. That's everything from me.

Thank you. As a reminder, please press star 1-1 to ask a question. Our next question comes from Emily Graves with Havdi Group. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. I'm in for Dave Bishop today. So super quick question on the loan conversation. Do you have a new loan origination yield? And then can you provide some color on how the rate increases are affecting specific sectors of your loan portfolio?

Yeah, Emily, just real quick on the loan yield. New originations were, I'll call it, in the low sixes overall. And, you know, consumer originations a little bit higher than commercial on the mix. And in terms of production of new, I think, you know, maybe just pointing to what Kurt alluded to earlier, you know, there's been some compression on certain pockets, a lot in commercial real estate, and even more specific on multifamily. So that's been an area where we've probably shown more discipline as of late, but that would be the one I would point to.

Great. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris Adama with Breen Capital. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. This is Chris Adamo on for Chris Marinette here. One quick question for you guys, following back on, I think, an early question on deposits. Could you just provide, I guess, an average deposit rate for the quarter for, I guess, what it would be to honor as a commercial client or a small business client? What are you guys seeing on that front?

Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, average overall, it's at 187. But for, you know, if I look at commercial segmentation in that, call it mid to upper twos, is where we're seeing some of that new deposit growth.

Perfect. Yeah, that's all I have for you guys. I appreciate the time. Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'll now like to turn it back to Kurt Myers for closing remarks.

Well, great. And thank you again for joining us today. We hope you'll be able to be with us when we discuss the fourth quarter results in January 27th. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.

You may now disconnect.