Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation Stock

Welcome to the Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I will now hand the conference over to Matthew Remo, Treasurer and Head of Corporate Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'm joined today by our President and CEO, Doug Kennedy; and our CFO, Frank Cavallaro, who will be providing an overview of our second quarter results. John Babcock, our President of Wealth Management; and Lisa Chalkan, our Chief Credit Officer, are also here to answer any questions.

If you have not yet read the earnings release and investor presentation we issued yesterday afternoon, you may access them by going to the Investor Relations page on our company website at peapackprivate.com. You may also access the investor presentation directly within the webcast today. After the presentation, we will be happy to take questions.

Our comments today may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to differ materially from expectations. Cautionary statements about reliance on this information are included in the earnings release and investor presentation as well as our SEC filings and other investor materials. The earnings release and presentation also include non-GAAP financial measures, so it is important to review the appropriate reconciliations in the appendices to each document.

And with that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Doug.

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. On behalf of the entire team at Peapack Private, I'm really pleased to report that our strategy continues to deliver solid results. We believe that we're building a durable and valuable franchise that has significant barriers to entry. Our people, our product offering grounded in wealth is very rare and extremely difficult to replicate. Revenue and profitability have been positive for 7 consecutive quarters, and we expect that trend to continue for the foreseeable future.

We continue to be on track to deliver a 1% ROA and 10% ROE by the fourth quarter of this year, possibly slipping into the first quarter of next, which is what we communicated to all of you previously. We have entered the third quarter with a very strong new business pipeline, and we feel very positive about the future.

For this past quarter, we reported net income of $15.8 million, consistent with where we had guided. This was an increase of 11% on a linked-quarter basis and was 99% year-over-year. Our Wealth Management business grew 6% year-to-date and 13% year-over-year with positive flows. Our deposits grew $231 million in the quarter, 35% of which was noninterest-bearing, and we continue to see relationships in that $2 million to $2.5 million average size.

Also notable is the fact that 56% of our deposit growth over the last 12 months have been in the form of noninterest-bearing accounts. Our loans are up $236 million, strong growth in C&I, equipment finance and CRE. Multifamily was down an additional $21 million in the quarter and $58 million year-to-date. So where are we in terms of our strategy and where we've been and where we're going?

In 2023, as you know, we made some bold strategic moves. We invested heavily in building out our product offering. We lifted teams from First Republic and Signature. And to date, we've hired a total of 20 teams and nearly 200 professionals to cover the Metro New York market, which includes Westchester and Long Island. Of course, all of this hiring temporarily impacted earnings, which bottomed out in the third quarter of 2024, but we expected that. And as we model through where we are right now, we're a little ahead of where we thought we would be.

Profits have rebounded quickly and given the level of investment and what's really incredible is that we essentially have built a de novo bank in New York and made it profitable in under 2 years. So where are we headed and where are we going?

The momentum that we built continues to grow. On Page 5 of our investor deck, we shared the level of noninterest-bearing DDAs that have been opened in the quarter. When you compare that to what happened a year ago earlier, that activity is up over 20% year-over-year. As stated, our current pipeline remains strong and the number of positive conversations we're having in the market leads me to believe that the strength that we're seeing will continue.

I should also note that the competition for deposits in the market has increased markedly in the last quarter, and Frank will touch on that a little bit more, but we do see a little bit of headwinds in terms of pricing. We're reiterating that the net interest margin going back to the first quarter, will grow a total of 6 to 9 basis points through the end of this year, which basically says it's going to sort of bounce around where it is. It will have some volatility to it, but we're still committed to what we had shared last quarter.

From a strategic standpoint, we have everything that we need. It's really all now about dedicated and focused execution. So our brand, we've come a long way. We rebranded the company. And I think about that a little bit as we go forward through the end of next year. I believe that by then, we will have built a very credible private banking institution, offering bespoke credit solutions that cater to affluent individuals and their families.

At present, we're offering life insurance premium finance. We have jumbo mortgages and HELOCs. We have investment lines of credit. We have professional lines of credit. We've done some fine art, some collectibles, and we recently began to launch aviation and Yacht Finance. All of this is geared towards meeting the needs of our clientele. So how we present our company externally will increasingly look and feel niche private bank with a focus on commercial and wealth management and the needs of high net worth individuals and their families.

So with that, let me just summarize in saying that it's been a great strategic journey over the last couple of years and a strong quarter for us at Peapack Private. We've had lots of momentum and a clear vision and path to execute that we remain confident that we will deliver strong, durable results, leading to superior shareholder value.

With that, I'll hand the call over to Frank, who will provide a detailed overview of the quarter's results. Frank?

Thanks, Doug, and good morning, everyone. I'll review the quarter in more detail, beginning with earnings, then moving through the balance sheet, credit and capital. Net income available to common shareholders for the quarter was $15.8 million or $0.85 per diluted share compared to $14.2 million or $0.80 a share in the first quarter.

Core earnings, which is pretax income before the provision increased to $30.4 million, up 12% sequentially and 70% from a year ago. Total revenue increased to $86.1 million, up 4% compared to the first quarter and 23% year-over-year. Net interest income was $63.9 million, an increase of $4 million from the first quarter and $15.6 million from a year ago.

This marked another quarter of consistent net interest income growth, supported by balance sheet expansion, disciplined pricing and improved earning asset yields. Net interest margin during Q2 increased by 6 basis points to 3.32%. The improvement this quarter was driven more by asset yields, while we largely held our ground on funding costs. We're really pleased with this considering what's happened to Fed futures over the last 3 months and the increasingly competitive deposit environment we are seeing every day.

Average earning asset yields increased for 2 primary reasons. First, we continue to hold our discipline on loan pricing with average yields on new originations in the quarter just north of 6%. And second, we're also seeing some impact from back book repricing. Our prior comments on average quarterly margin expansion of 2 to 3 basis points remains largely intact when reviewed over a longer period, but the progression will not necessarily be linear.

Following the 6 basis points increase in this quarter, we may give some back over the coming quarters, as Doug mentioned, and report changes below the 2 to 3 basis point range in individual periods, but remaining consistent with the broader outlook.

Noninterest income was $22.1 million, driven by wealth management fee income, which increased to $17.2 million, up 4% sequentially and 8% from a year ago. Operating expenses were $55.7 million, which is up less than 1% from the first quarter. Revenue growth outpaced expense growth 10:1, producing another strong quarter of positive operating leverage.

The reported efficiency ratio declined to 65%, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of improvement. We expect expense growth will continue to normalize as the investments made over the past several years become more productive.

Turning to the balance sheet. Growth remains strong across the company. Total loans increased $236 million during the quarter to $6.7 billion, up 15% year-over-year. Growth remained concentrated in our core areas of strength, particularly C&I and commercial real estate. Deposits increased $231 million, up to $7.1 billion, which is up 11% year-over-year. And noninterest-bearing deposits increased approximately $80 million in the quarter and have grown $386 million from a year ago.

We opened and funded more than 650 new noninterest-bearing DDA accounts in the quarter, which is consistent with our average volumes over recent quarters. As Doug mentioned, this continued growth in operating accounts is an important indicator of relationship quality and supports a more durable funding profile over time. The loan-to-deposit ratio remained well managed at about 95%. We continue to maintain substantial on and off-balance sheet liquidity, no broker deposits and a diversified funding base.

Turning to credit. The provision for credit losses was $8.1 million. Net charge-offs were $5.9 million in the quarter and were concentrated in one multifamily loan and one commercial mortgage relationship. The allowance for credit losses remained stable at 1.04% of total loans.

Nonperforming assets increased to $72.2 million or 0.91% of total assets compared to 0.77% in the first quarter. The increase was primarily driven by the migration of a previously disclosed larger multifamily relationship. At the same time, special mention loans declined, performing modifications decreased materially and early-stage delinquencies were relatively stable. We continue to see no evidence of broad-based deterioration across the portfolio.

Capital remains solid and continue to benefit from earnings generation. Tangible book value per share increased 3% during the quarter to $36.26 and is up 9% from a year ago. Holding company common equity Tier 1 capital was 10.38% and Tier 1 capital was 10.83%.

Based on this quarter's results and the continued momentum across the company, we elected to draw the remaining $20 million of available convertible preferred equity in July. You may recall that in the first quarter of this year, we announced a $50 million commitment to issue convertible preferred equity with an initial draw of $30 million back in March. After assessing current results and projected growth rates going forward, we felt that this was the appropriate time to add the remaining $20 million in capital to our balance sheet.

Overall, the quarter reflected continued progress across each of our key financial priorities, sustained revenue growth, positive operating leverage, margin expansion, disciplined balance sheet growth and continued tangible book value creation. We remain upbeat on the earnings trajectory of the company and the durability of the underlying relationship activity.

With that, we are happy to answer any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler.

Could we have an update on the deposit growth pipeline, and you've had some commentary in the past about the mix and just more color there to start with.

Sure. I would say that the strength of the pipeline is very consistent with what we've seen so far to date. As you would imagine, money market accounts get funded right away. Noninterest-bearing actually take time to sort of make the transfer over to us. So we sort of -- the forward look for us is how many accounts are sitting there waiting to get funded. And I will tell you that, that inventory of pipeline is as robust as it's ever been.

I think that in terms of guidance, we sort of have talked to $200 million each quarter. We still believe that about 1/3 of that would be in noninterest-bearing. That could fluctuate from time to time or quarter-to-quarter. But I would say that as we look through the end of this year, I would say that we're -- we feel very comfortable that that's the trajectory that we're on.

I appreciate that. It also sounds like loan pipelines are pretty strong. Could you just comment on what you're seeing out there in the market? Is it going to be at a continued similar mix to this quarter's really impressive growth? Just any further color there.

So there was some volume actually kicked into this quarter. So we actually came out of the gate pretty strong. And the pipelines, Lisa Chalkan is here. Lisa, I mean, I think they're still very strong.

Yes. I think we think that the growth number will be about $300 million, which means that we'll be closing $450 million to $500 million in order to be able to do that.

So stronger than the quarter we just had, Manuel.

Is that maybe driving the potential variability in the NIM that you're just having such strong opportunities on the growth side?

The answer to that is yes because we'll never get the timing right for deposits hitting our balance sheet at the same time that we're funding the loan pipe. So that's part of it.

The other part of it is that just in general, there's been elevated competition, and we're seeing rates with a 4 handle on it as being very common. So the longer we sit in this sort of even if it's transitory, higher elevated rate environment, the more pressure we're seeing.

And also, the economy is on fire, other banks are growing their balance sheet. So there is elevated competition for deposits. So I don't know exactly where it lands. As Frank said, we still hold on to the original guidance that we gave in the first quarter in terms of where we'll land by the end of the year.

We had a stronger performance this quarter, but we may give some of that back this quarter that we're in and -- but we'll land where we said that we were. So we still see some improvement in NIM, but we're definitely seeing some headwinds and the timing of the loan closings ahead of the deposits could potentially elevate costs as well.

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Moss with Raymond James.

This is Chase on for Steve. So I hear you on the elevated deposit competition in the market. So I was just curious like what costs were deposits coming on at in the quarter?

Do you have a coupon on deposits?

Yes. During the quarter, what we added was about 2.5%.

Got it. Appreciate that. And on the multifamily NPA inflow, do you have any indication on like resolution timing there?

This is Lisa Chalkan, Chief Credit Officer. Now it's hard to predict. I mean, the loans that just moved over, we have -- we're still negotiating with the client. We have started the foreclosure process. We are awaiting for a receiver to be appointed. In New York City, the foreclosure process is incredibly protracted post-COVID, and it's not gotten any better.

So in the event that we can come to some sort of an agreement that works for both the borrower and us, then maybe we'll be able to restructure and get them back paying. But otherwise, we're just going to continue to go through the foreclosure process, and that can take some time. We could choose to sell the note at some point if that makes sense. But I think the plan at the present time is to just move through the foreclosure process to get title.

I appreciate all that color. And just one last one for me. Can you size up the back book repricing opportunity and like the roll-off yields there?

Yes, it's about $1.5 billion over the next 6 quarters. There's -- that's not all multi. It's sort of a mix. And so we've -- the coupon there is just a little bit north of 4 and change. The current rate today is 6 and change. And there'll be some of the multi -- the rent stabilized stuff. I'm certain that we -- some of those have got sort of contractual rates that are in the 7s, which we'll negotiate on a client-by-client basis. So I think we've modeled -- we have modeled in some assumptions that I think high 5s is what we sort of conservatively took a look at.

We expect to get north of 1%, maybe 1.25% pickup on the repricing of the $1 billion that's going to reprice over the next 6 quarters.

Your next question comes from the line of Christopher Marinac with Brean Capital LLC.

Can you talk about the criticized loans in terms of what is pass rated within some of the past dues? And just wanted to kind of get back to kind of -- I think it's Slide 18 and the details you gave us there on the New York multifamily.

So just for multifamily, you want to know what is pass rated within -- past due versus criticized or classified?

Right. Just to get to kind of a bottom number. Yes, just to get Lisa to a bottom number in terms of what is criticized and what is past.

Yes. I'm doing the math in my head there is -- about $20 million is in special mention and the balance of the multifamily is in pass. The pass rated loans are in the 30-day bucket versus the ones that are special mention are in -- are 61 days at the end of the quarter.

Okay. Great. And are you at a point now where the downgrades can slow or maybe even possibly switch? Or what would be the time line for that?

I guess, if I had a crystal ball, but it's hard to say. I do think that they have slowed. I mean, I do think that the downward migration in risk rating has slowed. I think this quarter, we saw 5 of the loans that were in the relationship that we've been talking about for a while moved to nonperforming, but there was nothing else that moved to nonperforming.

So I think from a risk rating perspective, I think that we've seen improvement. And even on the past dues, if I look at the past dues, once I net out the 3 loans that are part of that relationship, the balance of the $10-ish million in multifamily that is past due, that's 7 different relationships.

With the wave of repricing and maturities that are coming up, there could be downgrading.

There could be. I can't predict it.

It's relationship by relationship, and that's kind of how the conversations are going.

Correct. I mean every single loan we're dealing with individually, but I'm not seeing a pervasive every quarter that the past dues in multifamily are down this quarter compared to last.

I guess really we're not seeing anything systemic. There's nothing that is -- that's bothersome. There's this one relationship that skewed the numbers. We sort of disclosed if you bake that out. I mean, it's very, very sanguine. Having said that, there's -- as we go through repricing, part of the negotiation may be that a client that has been servicing, never been delinquent, could stop paying us in order to negotiate.

So there's going to be things that we think that we're going to have a rocky road as we go client by client, loan by loan through this repricing cycle over the next 6 quarters that ultimately could create some noise inside delinquencies, inside of nonperformers, et cetera. But in the end, there's nothing that we see systemic. If it does show up, it's a negotiation, is really what's going on. which is, by the way, is what's going on.

The craziest thing has never happened in my career, and I've only been doing this for a few decades. I've never had a loan that actually has the capacity to pay, has more than 1:1 debt coverage, has an appraisal that shows that there's equity in it and the borrower says, I'm not making any payments.

And we've commenced foreclosure.

And we started foreclosure. I've never seen that in my entire career. It's negotiating is what they're doing.

Understood. And then just last related question. Does the reserve already anticipate some downgrades so that if some of those happen on a case-by-case basis that the reserve may have already covered a portion of it?

Has the reserve -- increase in the reserve already covered some of the potential downgrades -- it's a mix. There's some yes.

It's a mix. I mean, we would get an updated appraisal and sort out the specific reserve when something hits substandard. And so of the ones that we just downgraded to nonperforming 4 of them, the appraisals are pending at this point. But one of the appraisals that we did get in, the reserve that we had to put against it was only like $80,000 or something. It was minimal.

But every quarter, anything that's in nonperforming, every single quarter, we're looking at the value of the collateral in order to make a determination and the specific reserve is adjusted at that point in time.

We had sort of communicated at the end of last year, third quarter, fourth quarter last year that we thought we would have an elevated provision in the first half of this year. we've aggressively attacked a lot of the stuff that's there. Having said that, we believe that at least through the end of this year, that it's going to remain sort of at that $7.5 million level.

And it's a consequence of that something that we're seeing right now, but it's something that would arise because of what I just started in a negotiation. So there's some hard conversations that are going to take place that has the potential of keeping it sort of at that $7.5 million a quarter would be sort of our best guess.

Well, I was going to say loan growth and the economic conditions have had an impact, about half-ish of the reserve that we've put up this quarter is due either to the loan growth or because of weakening economic conditions, which the model factors in.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Doug for closing remarks.

Well, thank you all for joining us today. Q2 was clearly a validation of the strategy that we laid out during the disruption in our industry in 2023. We've invested where a lot of the other institutions that we compete against in this market pulled back. But I want to really the message to deliver this quarter is that, that investment is clearly behind us.

And what you're seeing now is a platform that's producing the ninth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, our seventh consecutive quarter of efficiency improvement, and we've also got an accelerated earnings and profitability path. And so in some ways, a lot of the risk of us going into New York is behind us, and we do see a lot of momentum turning into the third quarter and continuing out right through the end of the year.

So with that, I want to thank you all, and we look forward to sharing our progress continuing as we pull up in October. And of course, our door is open for anyone that wants to give us a shout. We're an open door here, and we'd love to be able to address any questions that you may have regarding our company. Thanks for your investment, and thank you for your loyalty and a lot of great stuff happening at Peapack Private.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Duff Meyercord, Chairman of the Board. Mr. Meyercord, the floor is yours.

Good morning. I'm Duff Meyercord, Chairman of the Board of Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation. On behalf of the directors, the officers of Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation and Peapack Private Bank & Trust, let me welcome you and express my appreciation for participating in this online meeting today. If you need access to our proxy statement and annual report, links to these documents are available online. Also, we intend to follow the rules of conduct for this meeting, a copy of which is located on the annual meeting portal. You may submit written questions at any point today by clicking the Q&A tab, which is located in the upper right portion of the meeting screen.

We will address questions related to the matters discussed in this meeting during the session, and we will reserve time at the end for general questions. The principal business of this annual meeting is to elect 13 directors to vote on the compensation of certain named executive officers and to ratify the appointment of independent auditors for 2026. At this time, I would like to introduce the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation, Mark Zingale. Mr. Zingale, has notice of this meeting been sent to all shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting?

Yes. I have here an affidavit sworn to by myself and duly signed, stating that notice has been mailed to each shareholder as required under the bylaws. In addition, resolutions were adopted by the Board of Directors of Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation, providing for the meeting to be held at this time and by remote communication and directing that notice be given as provided in the bylaws. The Board also fixed March 5, 2026, as the record date for determining shareholders entitled to notice of and to vote at this annual meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Zingale. Please file a copy of the notice and the affidavit as to the mailing of notice with the minutes for this meeting. Alisa Zagare from Computershare, our transfer agent, will be serving as our Inspector of Elections. Ms. Zagare, will you please present your report of the attendance at this meeting so that we can determine whether a quorum is present?

There were 17,570,625 shares entitled to vote as of the March 15 -- sorry, March 5, 2026, record date. 87% of the shares of the common stock of the company are represented at this meeting.

Thank you, Ms. Zagare. Based on the reports of the General Counsel and the Inspector of Elections, I find that proper notice has been given and that a quorum is present. Accordingly, this meeting has been properly convened. I intend to present all matters to be voted on at this meeting separately and allow questions to be asked once all the matters have been presented. As mentioned earlier, you may submit questions online by clicking the Q&A tab, which is located in the upper right portion of the meeting screen. At the conclusion of the presentation of all items, I will allow time for shareholders to vote online before the voting is closed. Mr. Zingale, were there any shareholder nominations or proposals for business for this meeting properly filed with the Corporate Secretary?

No.

Since no shareholder nominations or proposals were properly filed with the Corporate Secretary in advance of this meeting as provided by the bylaws, the business of this meeting is limited to the 3 matters stated in the agenda. The first proposal is the election of 13 directors, each of whom will serve for a 1-year term. All of the nominees are presently directors of the company and the bank. Additional information concerning the principal occupations of the nominees, our service with Peapack Financial Corporation and the bank and other matters that may be of interest are contained in the proxy statement. The second proposal is a nonbinding advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement. And third, to be considered at this meeting is the ratification of the appointment of Crowe LLP as the independent auditors for the year ending December 31, 2026. A representative of Crowe is available to answer any questions related to their engagement. Are there any questions with respect to the 3 proposals being considered today?

Mr. Chairman, there are no questions.

With the shareholders who wish to vote at this time, please do so by clicking on the link provided online. If you have already voted, there is no need for you to recast your vote. However, if you have not yet voted and wish to change your vote, you may do so by clicking on the link provided online. We will pause 30 seconds to allow for voting.

[Voting]

The online voting is now closed. Ms. Zagare, would you now present your report on the vote.

Each of the directors nominated by the Board have been duly elected. The nonbinding advisory vote on the compensation of the named executive officers have been approved and the appointment of Crowe as the independent auditor for the year ending December 31, 2026, has been ratified.

The report of the Inspector of Elections as presented is accepted. Mr. Zingale, please safeguard the votes and the oath and certificate and report of the Inspector of Elections and maintain them among the records of the company. I would like now to present our CEO, Chief Executive Officer, Doug Kennedy, who will make a brief presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome all to Peapack Financial Corporation's 105th Annual Meeting. I'm happy to report that 2025 was a pivotal year for our company. And the investments that we've made over the last 2 years are clearly now translating into meaningful growth and improved earnings. At the core of this transformation is our funding, driven by growth in noninterest-bearing deposits as well as disciplined loan growth and attractive spreads and a steady and predictable growth in wealth management. As a result, core earnings were up 45% year-over-year. Net interest margin expanded over 50 basis points, driven principally by a 28% growth in noninterest-bearing checking. During the year, we continued to invest in both sides of our company, bank and wealth, and these investments now provide a solid foundation for future growth.

Importantly, it's the combination of balance sheet mix, pricing discipline and client growth that is fueling gains and profitability. As mentioned in our Q1 earnings call, we believe that we now have visibility towards a 1% ROA and a 10% ROE towards the end of this year, turning into the beginning of 2027. In early 2024, we made the deliberate decision to expand into the New York market during a period of industry disruption. That decision allowed us to recruit high-quality talent at scale, something that's typically very difficult to do. To date, we've been pleased to welcome over 200 new teammates to our company, an increase of over 30% in our headcount. In 2024 was about building out deposits, infrastructure and brand. 2025 marked the shift to execution and profitability. We opened our flagship office on Park Avenue in New York in Q2. We continue to add talent in key lending verticals, and we entered into the Long Island market with an addition of 6 teams.

We also began the process of transitioning from a traditional branches to a private banking financial centers where the emphasis is more placed on advice and not simply transactions. Also during the year, we continued to invest in technology and in AI to scale our high-touch service model. What you're seeing in our numbers now is the early financial impact of these investments. To date, New York has delivered 1,300 new banking relationships, $2.1 billion in deposit growth and $1.6 billion in new credit commitments. As you can see from this chart, investors have reacted very positively to the actions. As of last week, our shares were up 42% year-to-date. And as of the close of business yesterday, we were up 53% year-to-date, an all-time high for our company. Clearly, the market is recognizing the positive work that we've been doing over the past few years, which is delivering earnings momentum.

Most importantly, we view this progress as the beginning of a more durable and consistent earnings trend that ultimately delivers best-in-class returns. The substantial investments we made in building out products, processes and rebranding has resulted in a differentiated franchise that is winning against large bank competitors throughout the New York region. Our wealth franchise and hospitality level white glove service model results in long-term deep relationships. Our New York City expansion is an extension of our wealth brand strategy that began when I arrived in 2012. The proof of the viability of our strategy lies in the fact that over the last 13 years, we've delivered a compounded annual growth in deposits, loans and wealth in the low teens, well above our regional peers. Double-digit growth to be real has to stand on a foundation of great service.

Our single point of contact relationship-driven model only works if the client experience is truly differentiated, which is why we've created a feedback loop leveraging Net Promoter Score over the past several years. NPS validates our ongoing efforts to continually improve the client experience. The norm in our industry is a score of 40, a score of 65 is excellent, but we're focused on doing better. Three years ago, we scored a 41 about average for the industry. Today, we operate in the 60s. Happy clients tend to do more business with us, and they often refer friends and family and colleagues to the bank. This dynamic is the path to continuous and stable growth. I'm particularly proud of our wealth management team, who had yet another record year. The business anchors our private banking strategy, recording $13.1 billion in AUM/AUA at the end of the year.

Our team delivers an exceptional client experience. And as you might expect, wealth management is an intensively personal business. The team delivered a very strong 41% operating margin, and the business uses virtually no capital and a holistic suite of services, including financial planning, investment management, trust and fiduciary services and estate and tax planning. The scarcity value of what we do is extremely high, and we expect that over time, this dimension of our business model, combined with robust profitable traditional banking will deliver premium valuation for our company's shares. Certainly, the increased valuation that we received year-to-date is a positive step in that direction. Our expansion into New York has grown our deposit base quite nicely and has transformed our company's liquidity profile. Over the past year, noninterest-bearing deposits grew 28%. Overall, client deposits grew $828 million or 16%.

And over the past 2 years, we've grown core deposit -- customer deposits by $2.1 billion. The outcome of this growth is a much stronger, more durable funding profile that has eliminated the use of broker deposits and any meaningful use of borrowings. Our high-level service enabled us to achieve a 92% beta in Q4 following the most recent rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Loan growth has consistently grown at 14% a year since 2012. We have a long track record of strong expertise in C&I, and so we continue to lean into that asset class, which is very granular and diversified across industries and is largely backed by a diverse pool of collateral as well. The recent growth in CRE reflects our shift towards relationship-based banking, where borrowers are also meaningful depositors. We have -- we do emphasize that New York rent stabilized lending has hit a soft spot and that we continue to be very careful and cautious as we go forward in that space.

Net interest income is where you can see the financial impact of our investments. Net interest income is the difference between what we receive in interest and what we pay for funding. To date, we're proud to have delivered 8 consecutive quarters of growth. Noninterest-bearing deposits has continued to drive our cost of funds lower and new business loan spreads have widened. The net result is that on the margin, net interest margin in 2025 averaged north of 4%. In closing, let me say that the strategy that we launched in 2023 is working and that we've built a platform that is durable and that can continue to scale. Our franchise is anchored by a scarce and valuable wealth management business that provides stability and long-term client satisfaction. Wealth management is a personal and intimate business. It's hard to do, and it's very hard to get into. Banking complements this capability and deepens those relationships, driving client satisfaction and incremental growth in earnings.

We continue to invest in our capabilities across treasury, advisory, technology and AI to deliver the best experience that we can for our clients while making us much more productive and profitable. At the end of the day, it comes down to a culture of service being our key differentiator. And that journey has been independently validated through Net Promoter Score over the last 3 years. Our focus going forward into 2026 and beyond continues to be consistency in our execution and making sure that our clients' interests come before anything else. Finally, I'd like to thank all of you for joining us today. I'd like to extend my personal thanks to my teammates and to you, my fellow shareholders, and especially for the guidance and support provided by our Board of Directors. At this point, I'd like to open it up to questions. As Mr. Meyercord has said, you may submit questions by clicking on the Q&A tab, which is located in the upper right-hand portion of the meeting screen.

Mr. Kennedy, there are no questions.

I want to thank all of you participating in today's meeting for the interest you have shown in the affairs of your company. We would not be able to accomplish what we have if the Board would like you to know how excited we are about our management team and the employees who help produce these results for you. At this time, the meeting will be adjourned.

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.

Welcome to the Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I will now hand the conference over to Matthew Remo, Treasurer and Head of Corporate Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everybody. I would like to thank you all for participating in our inaugural public earnings call. Joining me today is our President and CEO, Doug Kennedy; and our CFO, Frank Cavallaro, who will both provide an overview of our first quarter results. John Babcock, our President of Wealth Management; and Lisa Chalkan, our Chief Credit Officer, are also here to answer any questions you may have.

If you have not yet read the earnings release and investor presentation we issued yesterday afternoon, you may access them by going to the Investor Relations page on our company website at peapackprivate.com. You may also access the investor presentation directly within the webcast today. After the presentation, we will be happy to take questions.

Our comments today may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to differ materially from expectations. Cautionary statements about reliance on this information are included in the earnings release and investor presentation as well as our SEC filings and other investor materials. The earnings release and presentation also include non-GAAP financial measures, so it is important to review the appropriate reconciliations in the appendices to each document.

And with that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Doug.

Thanks, Matt. Hello, everybody. I'm really pleased to report our first quarter earnings results, which again reflected solid performance and continued positive momentum, building out our differentiated banking brand throughout the Metro New York region.

Core earnings increased for the sixth consecutive quarter with net income reaching up $14.2 million, up 16% on a linked quarter basis and 86% year-over-year. Despite $225 million in payoffs in Q1, loans grew $184 million to $6.4 billion, up 12% year-over-year, while deposits increased $238 million to $6.8 billion, up 9% year-over-year.

In Q1, we welcomed an additional 150 new commercial relationships, bringing our New York expansion results to more than 1,300 relationships with over $2.1 billion in client deposits and over $1.6 billion in credit commitments. Importantly, our expansion strategy has transformed our balance sheet and translated into higher quality earnings. We continue to see strong revenue growth in the quarter, now up 28% year-over-year, while expenses increased at a more muted pace, all of this driving positive operating leverage and improved profitability. We expect that continued new business flows and our ongoing investment in technology and AI should continue to deliver solid positive operating leverage for the foreseeable future.

Net interest margin expanded an additional 18 basis points in the quarter to 3.26%, continuing the meaningful upward trend that we've seen over the past 6 months. This momentum reflects discipline in our low pricing and continued improvement in our funding mix. In the current quarter, noninterest-bearing deposits comprised 49% of the overall deposit growth, increasing by $116 million. Over the past 12 months, over 2/3 of our deposit growth has been noninterest-bearing.

Our liquidity profile remains strong. Our loan-to-deposit ratio stood at 94%, and we continue to maintain a well-balanced funding base with a high level of operating deposits, limited borrowings and no brokered fundings. During the quarter, we also used our strong liquidity profile to reposition a portion of our securities portfolio, exiting lower-yielding long-duration bonds without impacting earnings and redeploying proceeds into higher-yielding securities. This action should provide a modest tailwind to our margin going forward.

From a capital perspective, we redeemed $100 million supported debt, which have become less efficient from a capital standpoint and replaced a portion of preferred equity. This capital action enhanced the quality of our capital base while maintaining an attractive overall cost and improve financial flexibility as we continue to execute our growth strategy.

In the quarter, asset quality continued to improve with nonperforming assets declining for the third consecutive quarter to 77 basis points. And while we did see some increase in early-stage delinquencies, we remain confident in the direction of overall credit quality metrics.

Our Wealth Management business delivered another quarter of solid performance with revenue increasing to $16.5 million or 7% year-over-year, and assets under management and administration remaining stable at approximately $13 billion, even amid volatility late in the quarter. In the current period, we reported gross inflows of $227 million with New York beginning to ramp up quite nicely.

Finally, notwithstanding our optimism, we remain mindful of the broader macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. We've been focused on the potential for a more challenging backdrop including an increased risk of stagflation. In that context, we feel very good about how our balance sheet is positioned with strong liquidity, high-quality capital, disciplined underwriting and a diversified loan portfolio.

At this point, I'll hand things over to Frank, who will provide you with a more detailed overview of our results.

Thanks, Doug, and good morning, everyone. I'll walk through the quarter in a bit more detail, starting with earnings, and then I'll move through the balance sheet, credit and capital. Overall, we were very pleased with the continued momentum in the business. Net income for the quarter was $14.2 million. This marks our sixth consecutive quarter of core earnings growth, reflecting the strength of the franchise and the consistency of execution across the platform.

Net interest income increased to approximately $60 million in the quarter, up 6% sequentially and 32% year-over-year, continuing the strong upward trend trajectory that we've seen over the past several quarters. The continued improvement in revenue has been driven by our disciplined loan pricing, strong loan growth and attractive spreads, along with ongoing improvement in our funding mix, particularly the growth in noninterest-bearing deposits.

Incremental spreads on new production remained strong in the quarter at approximately 3.75%, which continues to support revenue growth and margin expansion. Noninterest income remained a consistent contributor with wealth management revenue of $16.5 million in the quarter, up 7% year-over-year. We continue to see solid activity in the wealth business, which supports both fee income growth and broader relationship development across the platform.

On the expense side, total operating expenses were $55.4 million in the quarter, up modestly on a linked-quarter basis. Importantly, revenue growth continued to outpace expense growth, resulting in another quarter of positive operating leverage. The efficiency ratio improved to approximately 67%, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of improvement. As we look ahead, we remain focused on disciplined expense management while continuing to support growth initiatives across the franchise.

The provision for credit losses was $7.3 million in the quarter, reflecting continued loan growth as well as specific reserves on a limited number of relationships. Nonperforming assets declined for a third consecutive quarter to 0.77% of total assets, reflecting continued progress in resolving criticized and nonaccrual exposures. The allowance for credit losses remained stable at approximately 1.04% of total loans, providing solid coverage against residual risk.

Turning to the balance sheet. We continue to see strong growth and improved composition. Doug highlighted the growth in both loans and deposits, which we believe to be sustainable as we review pipeline for the coming months. Loan growth has been driven by continued strength in our core lending businesses. And on the deposit side, nearly half of the growth in the first quarter came from an increase in noninterest-bearing deposit balances.

We also continue to see strong underlying client activity with 683 new noninterest-bearing DDA accounts opened and funded during the quarter, reflecting the granularity and consistency of our relationship-driven growth model. The continued mix improvement remains a key driver of margin expansion and overall balance sheet strength. Liquidity remains strong with a loan deposit ratio of 94% and over $5 billion of available liquidity, including off-balance sheet sources.

From a capital perspective, we view this as both an important and proactive quarter. In his remarks, Doug mentioned a private placement offering of convertible preferred stock, while we also redeemed $100 million in sub debt. The preferred issuance was $30 million with the option to draw an additional $20 million through the end of 2027, if needed, which provides flexibility and aligns well with our strategic direction. This action enhanced the quality of our capital base by increasing Tier 1 capital and improving overall capital efficiency. As a result, Tier 1 capital increased above 11%, which supports continued growth.

At the same time, the CET1 ratio also improved sequentially through organic capital generation and disciplined balance sheet management. Taken together, these actions position us well to support loan growth at attractive returns while maintaining a strong capital profile.

Overall, we feel very good about the trajectory of the business, continued earnings momentum, improving margins, strong balance sheet growth and a well-positioned capital base.

With that, we are happy to answer any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Steve Moss with Raymond James.

Maybe just starting on loan growth here. Just kind of curious if you could just think about like give us a little color here in terms of loan pricing, I apologize if I missed it. I hopped on a few minutes late. But just kind of curious on loan pricing and also how you're thinking about the strength of growth as the year goes on. I mean do we see -- I mean you had a good first quarter, but do we feel like that the level you saw in the third and fourth quarter continue in seasonally stronger quarters?

So in terms of demand -- I'm sorry. In terms of pipelines right now, they're very strong. And so I think in terms of visibility going through the second and the third quarter, I think we feel very good about that. In terms of spreads, we have not seen -- we've seen some crazy stuff in the market. We've kind of targeted a minimum if it's up the swap curve, [ 2.10 to 2.25 ] over the swap curve and on a fixed basis, a coupon of starting with the number 6 in front of it. There's been some occasions where it wasn't, but we had significant noninterest-bearing DDA as an offset.

And then on the C&I side, it's a [ 2.25 to 2.50 ] SOFR kind of spread. So I think we have been very disciplined in terms of margin, credit underwriting, and we do see a very strong pipeline going into this quarter, that will spill in the quarter.

Okay. Great. I appreciate that. And then just maybe on credit here. There was definitely an uptick in like the special mention and 39 days past due from the New York rent regulated. Just kind of wondering any color around that uptick and just kind of how you're thinking about resolution and working out of those resolutions.

Lisa will pick that up.

Yes. So it is largely one sponsor group and multiple different loans. They are in that 30- to 89-day category and moved to special mention. I will note that 3 of the 8 loans did make 8 payments after the end of the quarter, they would obviously still be in that 30 to 89 bucket, but they did make a payment.

We continue to actively speak with the client in order to get the loans paid. Should they reach 90 days past due, we will aggressively pursue collection. And in the meantime, we are watching them closely. We do believe, based on financial information that was submitted that the financial condition of these buildings is not compromised that there is positive cash flow that should be available to pay the loans. But I will note that this happens to be the borrower in the fund. And so there is a concern on whether or not fund expenses are taking the place of bank loan payments. So again, we will pursue that aggressively.

Okay. And kind of just curious. Do you have an updated appraisal or what the LTV may be on those properties?

We have appraisals that are 1 year old and all of them were in the 70% to 85% range, depending on the individual loan. And I will note that the 3 loans that were paid were the largest loans in the pool.

Okay. Got you. And then, I guess, the other thing here just -- I apologize if I missed this, too, but in terms of the margin, good margin expansion here this quarter. It definitely looks like those trends should continue given low prices and everything else. Just kind of curious on the cadence here, Frank, of margin expansion for the rest of the year.

So you've seen strong margin growth for the last 2 consecutive quarters. And I think we communicated previously that we continue to expect that going forward, but not at the same pace, maybe at a slower pace as we look ahead. The rate cuts from last year have really helped us lower the cost of funds and maintain a yield on earning assets. So I think all improvement, but at a slower pace would be my answer.

Probably 2 to 3 basis points in the quarter.

Yes, it's fair.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from [ Mark Shuttle ] with KBW.

So deposit growth is really strong and has been for some time, particularly noninterest-bearing. So I was just wondering what you're expecting for noninterest-bearing growth for the remainder of the year? And if overall deposit growth can outpace loan growth this year?

So the answer is, if you sort of dig into the footnotes, there was some money that we left off balance sheet through the [ sweep -- interim sweep. ] So I think it was $70 million or $80 million at quarter end. We're kind of targeting somewhere between $175 million and $200 million in loan growth and deposit growth. And we think that we have the people and the pipelines to be able to sort of pursue that. Of course, like anything in life, there will be a quarter that it's soft in the loans. It's going to be heavy on the deposits, and it will be vice versa. So we think that in terms of the question of being able to generate funding through deposits, the answer is, yes, we believe that.

In terms of the mix on the margin and the new accounts that are coming in, we're consistently tracking at about a 30% mix of noninterest-bearing. How it's showing up on our balance sheet is that we've been trading higher-priced money markets, et cetera, off balance sheet and bring -- as we brought in these new core relationships. So the mix of getting like over the last 12 months of 2/3 non interest-bearing, the way that it makes its way to our P&L is that there was a lot of money market interest-bearing stuff at higher coupons that we've exited, and we've then brought in some lower costing funds.

I think that in terms of the retrading of the portfolio, so looking at that 2/3 number, we don't see that consistently happening in the future. Our balance sheet right now is about 23%, 24%. And on the margin, we are still coming in at 30%. So we see the 23% starting to creep up, and we'd be able to maintain that 70-30 mix of interest-bearing to noninterest-bearing.

Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe just on deposit costs. So obviously, that was really the driver of the NIM this quarter. And I was just wondering, given sort of the flatter rate environment, are you seeing any heightened competition? And I guess, it sounds like that deposit costs will continue to come down a little bit, but maybe just like a more moderated pace.

Yes. I think that in terms of the NIM, as we said, it's 2 to 3 basis points going up. And in this quarter, if you look at the yield on loans, because our C&I portfolio is 43% of the balance sheet, about 1/3 of that 43% or 1/3 of our total loan book is floating. So we have a lot of floating rate assets, and they repriced coming into the first quarter.

So if you look at -- while the spread improved, it was mostly on the deposit side versus lending. If we stay in a steady rate environment right now, the combination of repricing of the back book as well as the new volume of loans, that is going to be the [indiscernible], it's going to go to the asset side of the balance sheet will be driving the NIM expansion going forward.

And to the competition question. Yes, in the latter part of the quarter, we really started to see some crazy things on the rate side from competition. So Doug used the word, disciplined pricing in his opening comments, and that's just what will be our mantra as we go forward.

And we are walking away from opportunities.

Our next question comes from Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler.

This is [ Grant ] on for Manuel. I was just wondering if you could speak to what geography is driving some of the wealth management inflows and the deposit inflows? Is that coming from Manhattan growth or other areas?

This is John Babcock. I'll just jump to the wealth management side. It's not the largest driver. I think we're still kind of in the early innings in New York. There has been some good new business won, and the pipeline is strong. But I think it's more from our legacy franchise, if you will, at this point.

And on the deposit side, I would say the quarter was -- it was actually about 50-50 between New Jersey and New York.

I would say just a comment on that, I would say, is that with purpose, we're still calling out the New York franchise because it was a start-up, and it's really got to a critical mass. But I think we are migrating to a singular story about us being a regional institution and the geography is going to be less important to us. And so I think that as we continue to report going forward about our loan activity, wealth, et cetera, the geography will vary from quarter-to-quarter, but it's intrinsically just becoming us. It's not just entirely a New York story. Although having said that, New York could actually be the size of New Jersey in a short period of time.

I would just add on to the wealth. That is from where it comes from. So I'm talking about where that new business came from, not where the clients are physically located. We've always had clients in New York, continue to have new clients in New York, but some of that are driven by advisers who are here in New Jersey. So just a footnote to my earlier comments.

[Operator Instructions]

So I guess there's one more question or no?

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Doug for closing remarks.

Well, thanks, everybody. On behalf of the entire team at Peapack, we really appreciate all the support that you've given us. We did make a transformational move going into New York and by any measure, we got to a breakeven within 12 months. And I think the trajectory of our company continues to move in a very positive way.

In terms of how we see the business and how we've been modeling it, et cetera, we believe that, that strength continues for the foreseeable future. We are very keenly focused on the margin, incremental margin of both loans and deposits. So there's discipline on both sides of that. And we are managing the company towards the fourth quarter of '27. So a year ago, we really put the ball out. We made this massive investment. And we know the returns right now are not a destination. But at the end of the day, we believe that we have a pathway to get to best-in-class returns by the time we close out at the end of '27.

In the meantime, if you consider open stakes at the end of this year, early next, we believe that we crossed the 1% ROA and a 10% return on capital, which is opening stakes, we could call that. And we believe that within this calendar year, we'll have a run rate as we close the year out of that. And then from there, nothing but clean air above all of that.

So that's the plan that we're working on. And again, thanks very much for your support, and I look forward to talking to you at the end of next quarter.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.