Two Tennessee banks with major operations in Chattanooga - Pinnacle and SmartBank - both reported higher net income in 2019 today.
Despite the squeeze on profit margins from lower interest rates, the banks took advantage of loan and deposit growth spurred by the growing economy to boost overall net income.
Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc., the Nashville-based parent of Pinnacle Bank, said net income in the fourth quarter totaled $1.26 per share, up 2.4% from the $1.23 a share earned a year ago. For the entire year, Pinnacle earnings rose to $5.22 per shar,e up from $4.64 per share a year earlier.
"Given the volatile interest rate backdrop during 2019, we are very pleased to report 13 percent earnings per share growth in 2019," said M. Terry Turner, Pinnacle's president and chief executive officer. "We believe that growth rate should place us in the top quartile of our peers, which is specifically where we aim to be every year."
Pinnacle said it hired 85 revenue producers in 2019, up from the 107 hired in the previous year.
At the Knoxville-based Smart Financial Corp., net income rose in the fourth quarter to 48 cents per share, up from 46 cents a year earlier. For all of 2019, SmartBank earned $26.5 million, or $1.89 per share, compared with $18.1 million, or $1.45 per share, in 2018.
"The consistency we are beginning to show in all areas of our company, especially our financial metrics, is very exciting to me," SmartFinancial Chairman Miller Welborn said. "Our team continues to improve their execution of our strategy while maintaining a laser focus on growing long term shareholder value."
SmartBank