West Bend-based Westbury Bancorp Inc., parent company of Westbury Bank, reported fiscal first quarter net income of $1 million, or 27 cents per share, up from $447,000, or 10 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2015.
Net interest income was $5 million in the quarter, up from $4.5 million in the same period a year ago. The bank reduced its provision for loan losses from $350 million to $150 million year-over-year, and lowered its foreclosed real estate operation and sale losses from $148,000 to $13,000. Non-interest income was $1.6 million, down from $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2015.
Westbury’s total assets were $670.6 million in the quarter, up from $594.6 million in the first quarter of 2015. The bank’s return on average assets increased from 0.31 percent in the first quarter of 2015 to 0.63 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Its non-performing assets to total assets ratio decreased from 0.6 percent to 0.11 percent year-over-year.
“We are pleased to announce a strong start to 2016. The hard work of our banking team has resulted in improvements to net interest income and noninterest expense while maintaining noninterest income as a healthy percentage of total revenue,” said Kirk Emerich, executive vice president and chief financial officer. “Our loan growth has added additional net interest income while at the same time, the decisions we made, which were previously announced, to close certain underperforming branches and to buy out certain service contracts have resulted in expense savings as expected.”
“While our loan growth has slowed this quarter, we are continuing to seek opportunities to add high quality commercial business and real estate loans to our portfolio in the quarters ahead,” said Greg Remus, president and chief executive officer. “We are also pleased that our improved earnings and our stock repurchase program have combined to continue to improve our price to book value ratio and return on equity.”
Westbury Bank has nine branches in Wisconsin, most of which are in the Milwaukee area.
