Earnings call transcript: RBB Bancorp’s Q3 2025 earnings beat expectations

RBB Bancorp (market cap: $324.49M) reported strong financial results for Q3 2025, surpassing analyst expectations with an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.59, compared to the forecasted $0.41. This represents a significant 43.9% earnings surprise. The company’s revenue also exceeded expectations, reaching $31.95 million against a forecast of $31.72 million. Following the announcement, RBB Bancorp’s stock price surged 6.81% in regular trading hours and continued to rise 7.55% in premarket trading. According to InvestingPro, three analysts have recently revised their earnings expectations upward for the upcoming period, suggesting continued optimism about the company’s performance.

Key Takeaways

• RBB Bancorp’s Q3 2025 EPS of $0.59 beat the forecast by 43.9%.
• Revenue reached $31.95 million, slightly above expectations.
• Stock price increased by 6.81% post-earnings and 7.55% in premarket trading.
• Net interest income rose to $29.3 million, with a margin expansion to 2.98%.
• The company repurchased 660,000 shares, enhancing shareholder value.

Company Performance

RBB Bancorp demonstrated robust performance in Q3 2025, with net income climbing to $10.1 million, marking a 9% increase from the previous quarter and a 45% rise year-over-year. The company’s focus on relationship-driven commercial and industrial (C&I) and Small Business Administration (SBA) lending, along with strong mortgage origination, contributed to this growth. The loan portfolio yield increased to 6.12%, reflecting strategic lending practices.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $31.95 million (up from forecasted $31.72 million)
• Earnings per share: $0.59 (up from forecasted $0.41)
• Net interest income: $29.3 million
• Net interest margin: 2.98%
• Loan originations: $188 million at 6.70% blended yield

Earnings vs. Forecast

RBB Bancorp exceeded market expectations with an EPS of $0.59, significantly higher than the forecasted $0.41, resulting in a 43.9% surprise. Revenue also surpassed predictions, albeit modestly, by 0.73%. This performance marks a continuation of the company’s positive trend, with the magnitude of the earnings beat being notable compared to previous quarters.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings release, RBB Bancorp’s stock price rose by 6.81% during regular trading and continued to climb by 7.55% in premarket trading. This positive movement reflects investor confidence, pushing the stock closer to its 52-week high of $25.3, while still well above the 52-week low of $14.4.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, RBB Bancorp remains focused on improving credit quality and exploring potential growth in C&I and SBA lending. The company is also considering sub-debt refinancing in 2026 and monitoring potential interest rate cuts. Projected EPS for FY2026 is $1.95, with revenue expected to reach $135.6 million, indicating a positive growth trajectory.

Executive Commentary

CEO Johnny Lee emphasized the company’s vigilance in addressing credit issues, stating, "We continue to stay laser-focused and very vigilant on making sure that we continue to address the remaining sort of credit issues." CFO Lynn Hopkins highlighted the competitive liquidity market, noting, "Competition for liquidity is quite fierce," underscoring the challenges in maintaining favorable deposit rates.

Risks and Challenges

• Competitive liquidity market pressures could impact deposit rates.
• Potential rate cuts may affect interest income.
• Economic uncertainties could influence loan growth and asset quality.
• Regulatory changes may impact capital requirements and lending practices.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about asset quality improvements, deposit beta, and funding costs. Discussions also covered loan growth strategies and capital allocation, with executives providing insights into the company’s focus on maintaining strong capital levels and efficient operations.

Full transcript - RBB Bancorp (RBB) Q3 2025:

Ali, Conference Operator: Greetings and welcome to the RBB Bancorp third quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode, and a question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star and zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to the company representative, Rebeca Rico. Ma’am, the floor is yours.

Rebeca Rico, Investor Relations, RBB Bancorp: Thank you, Ali. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss RBB Bancorp’s results for the third quarter of 2025. With me today are President and CEO Johnny Lee, Chief Financial Officer Lynn Hopkins, Chief Credit Officer Jeffrey Yeh, and Chief Operations Officer Gary Fan. Johnny and Lynn will briefly summarize their results, which can be found in the earnings press release and investor presentation. They’re available on our investor relations website, and then we’ll open up the call to your questions. I would ask that everyone please refer to the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements in the investor presentation and the company’s SEC filings. Now, I’d like to turn the call over to RBB Bancorp’s President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny Lee. Johnny?

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Thank you, Rebeca. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Third quarter net income totaled $10.1 million or $0.59 per share, which is a 9% increase from last quarter and a 45% increase from a year ago. The increase in net income was driven by core earnings growth and lower credit costs, which we believe are both positive signs for our outlook. Loan growth supported increased asset yields and net interest income, and loan loss provisions decreased as credit continued to stabilize. We made good progress addressing many of our non-performing loans and performing credit-sized loans. Net interest margin increased by 6 basis points to 2.98% compared to the prior quarter and has increased by 30 basis points over the last four quarters.

Loans held for investment grew by $68 million or 8% on an annualized basis, with a large part of that growth coming from our in-house mortgage origination business, which continues to perform well. Third quarter loan originations totaled $188 million at a blended yield of 6.70% or 67 basis points above the prior quarter’s blended loan portfolio yield. Even with the recent rate cut and continued competition, we’ve been able to increase loan yields and maintain strong growth, which we feel demonstrates the progress we’ve been making on originations. We also continue to make progress addressing our non-performing loans as quickly as possible while minimizing the impact on earnings and capital. Credit-sized and classified assets decreased due mostly to the upgrade of a $44 million construction loan following the completion of the project. With that, I’ll hand it over to Lynn to talk about results in more detail. Lynn?

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Thank you, Johnny. Please feel free to refer to the investor presentation we have provided as I share my comments on the company’s third quarter of 2025 financial performance. Slide three of our investor presentation has a summary of our recent and third quarter results. As Johnny mentioned, net income for the third quarter was $10.1 million or $0.59 per diluted share. Compared to our second quarter results, net income increased 9% while earnings per share increased 12% due to the higher earnings and stock repurchase activity. The increase in net earnings was driven by ongoing loan growth, lower credit costs, and controlled operating expenses, which more than offset the employee retention credit we recognized in the second quarter. Net interest income increased for the fifth consecutive quarter and is up $1.9 million for the linked quarters to $29.3 million, driven by higher interest income of $3.2 million.

Our net interest margin continued to expand also for the fifth consecutive quarter, reaching 2.98% as we increased the overall loan yield and achieved a two basis point decline in funding costs. Our spot rate on deposits on September 30th was 2.97%, which was six basis points below the third quarter’s average of 3.03%. We may get some incremental improvement in the fourth quarter, but competition for liquidity remains stiff, and we are unlikely to see big reductions in funding costs without additional rate cuts. Third quarter net non-interest income showed a $5.2 million decrease, which is attributed entirely to the employee retention credit or ERC proceeds recognized last quarter.

Third quarter non-interest expenses decreased by $1.8 million to $18.7 million due mainly to the ERC-related expenses of $1.2 million and other executive management transition costs recognized in the second quarter, both of which were not repeated in the current quarter. Our operating expense ratio was 1.8%, and our efficiency ratio was just over 57% for the third quarter. Nonetheless, expenses were slightly higher than expected due to costs related to strong loan originations and ongoing investment in our business. As we look out, quarterly non-interest expense is expected to be in the $18 to $19 million range, and at the same time, we are focused on managing our operating costs to be below 2% of average assets. Slides five and six have additional color on our loan portfolio and yields.

The loan portfolio yield expanded by 9 basis points to 6.12% due primarily to the strong origination yields Johnny mentioned, combined with the repricing and renewal of loans in the current rate environment. Slide 7 has details about our $1.7 billion residential portfolio, which increased modestly and consists of well-secured non-QM mortgages primarily in New York and California, with an average LTV of 55%. Slides 9 through 11 have details on asset quality, and I’ll make a few specific points. Non-performing loans decreased $11.3 million or 20% to $44.5 million and are all risk-rated substandard. This decrease was due mostly to a $6.9 million charge-off and $5 million in upgraded loans. Substandard loans decreased $14.1 million and totaled $76.9 million at the end of the third quarter. The decrease included the same charge-offs and upgrades noted for non-performing loans.

In addition, we had payoffs and paydowns of $16.6 million offset by downgrades totaling $15.4 million, including one $8.4 million commercial real estate loan. 41% of total substandard loans at quarter end remain on accrual status. Special mention loans decreased 46% to $49 million due to a $44 million loan for a completed construction project that was upgraded. Past due loans also decreased $11.5 million to end the quarter at $6.5 million. In light of the improved asset quality trends and net loan growth for the quarter, the provision for credit losses totaled $625,000. The overall allowance for credit losses decreased $6.1 million during the third quarter due to net charge-offs of $6.9 million offset by the provision expense.

The net charge-offs were related almost entirely to one lending relationship due to the borrower declaring bankruptcy during this quarter, and this charge-off included $6.6 million in reserves we had established in previous periods. The allowance for loan losses to total loans held for investment ratio stood at 1.36% at September 30, which we think appropriately addresses the risk in our loan portfolio. Slide 13 has details about our deposit franchise. Total deposits increased by $178 million from the end of the second quarter to $3.4 billion, with growth in all deposit categories. This growth included $84 million in wholesale time deposits, a portion of which was used to repay $50 million in Federal Home Loan Bank advances. Our tangible book value per share increased to $25.89, which was a 12% annualized increase. We repurchased 660,000 shares or 4% of shares outstanding in the third quarter.

Our capital levels remain strong, with all capital ratios above regulatory and well-capitalized levels. With that, we are happy to take your questions. Operator, if you could please open up the call.

Ali, Conference Operator: Thank you. At this time, we’ll be conducting our question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue, and you may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question is coming from Brendan Nosal with Hovde Group. Your line is live.

Brendan Nosal, Analyst, Hovde Group: Hey, good morning, folks. Hope you’re all doing well.

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Hey, Brendan.

Good.

How are you?

Brendan Nosal, Analyst, Hovde Group: Maybe starting off here on asset quality, congratulations on getting, you know, across the board improvement in all of your metrics this quarter. Really nice to see everything moving together in the same direction. I know that there’s probably more work to do. I guess, you know, if credit resolution is a baseball game, what inning do you folks think you’re in? What levels of problem assets do you view as mission accomplished, just given that there’s always some churn in the asset base? Thanks.

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Oh, that’s a, well, Brendan, I appreciate the question, first of all. I think it’s very relevant for what’s given the series coming up. As you sort of suggested, we certainly still have a lot of work to do. I mean, certainly, I think for Q3, with all the hard work and sort of disciplined focus that everyone put in, we certainly have made good progress. To your earlier comment, we certainly have more work to do, and we continue to stay laser-focused and very vigilant on making sure that we continue to address the remaining sort of credit issues that we may have. I would say we’re keeping track to what we’ve been focused on doing and just continue to hopefully get to that final, final, the ninth inning and finish at the World Series. Okay.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: I had a couple more minutes to contemplate your clever question. Let me add a couple things that I think might go to your point as well. You know, when are we going to view mission accomplished? About 93% of our non-accrual loans are represented by a handful of relationships. I think we’re very focused on getting those resolved. It’s taking longer than anticipated. I think moving those all the way through is going to be one thing that would be considered mission accomplished. We would be looking for, you know, MPAs are always going to be part of a bank’s balance sheet, but for them to not be maybe individually as significant as some of the ones we’ve had to handle.

Our MPAs this quarter have some REO in it, so mission accomplished will be getting those sold and off of our books, which we think are carried at appropriate value. I hate to even guess what inning it is because I think I will definitely get that one wrong. I think those are kind of the big things that we’re looking at for right now.

Brendan Nosal, Analyst, Hovde Group: Thank you, Johnny and Lynn. I appreciate you offering a couple of, you know, signs along the way of what we should be looking for. Maybe turning the page to capital for one before I step back. You folks were obviously very aggressive on share repurchase for this quarter. Can you just remind us how much is left in the current authorization, and then thoughts on kind of re-upping that if and when you complete the current program?

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Sure. We have about $4 million left on the current program when we look at second quarter and third quarter activity. I would say that our stock price was attractive, and we would like to see it trading at a higher price, so we will take advantage of that during the quarter. I think as we look forward, we are looking at our sub-debt that has the opportunity to reprice, maybe be refinanced next year. I think there’s a couple things at play, but we would always be considering opportunities for a buyback, but I don’t have information on anything new at the moment. I think we’ll be working on our current program.

Brendan Nosal, Analyst, Hovde Group: Okay. All right. Thank you folks for taking the question. I appreciate it.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Yeah.

Ali, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler. Your line is live.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Hey, good morning. Johnny and Lynn?

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Hey, thank you.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Just on the spot rate, you gave us at 2.97%. It suggests your deposit beta may have slowed here a little bit more recently with the recent cut, but obviously, there’s some lag with your CD portfolio and the repricing that likely unfolds there. The deposit beta, I think, you know, cycle to date has been over 70%. I’m trying to get a sense for, you know, assuming we get a few more rate cuts, what type of deposit beta you might be targeting, whether or not that might slow some, or do you think you still can hold that 70% level?

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: I would say it’s probably slowed a little bit, because competition for liquidity is quite fierce. The rate cut came pretty late in the quarter, so I don’t know that it’s fully reflected in a September 30 spot rate. I think it’s just indicating a little bit of movement. Our cost of funds, to your point, moved down two basis points for the linked quarters. We have highlighted and mentioned that the majority of our time deposits do mature within the next 12 months. We have about 40% maturing in the fourth quarter. I would offer up that those are coming off at a rate that is very similar to what is being offered in the marketplace now, you know, high threes. With interest rates potentially moving down, maybe there’ll be some opportunity there, and I would expect we would be able to capitalize on that.

We did a nice job with increasing our money market savings and some non-interest bearings, so I think that will help also with our overall funding costs. I do think competition is impacting our ability to maybe push all the way down when rates come down.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Okay. If you have it, the average NIM in the month of September?

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: You know what? It’s pretty close to the average, Matthew.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Okay.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: That we had for the quarter.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: So.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: I think.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: And it.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: While we remain liability-sensitive because of the repricing profile of our, you know, our CDs and that part of our balance sheet, I think one of the key drivers of our net interest margin is our earning assets and the loan growth in our portfolio. We’re bringing on the funding because we’ve had nice loan growth, and I think that that’s the other thing that is showing up in the deposit beta.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Okay. Just the last one from me on the loan growth this quarter, you know, a decent amount of it came from single family, but I also know that or I believe that you want to kind of mix-shift the portfolio toward C&I, you know, longer term. Just any commentary around, you know, that potential mix shift and what you’re seeing in the pipeline on the loan side? I mean, growth is still, you know, high single-digit here this latest quarter. I’m not sure how the pipeline, though, looks coming out of the quarter.

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Sure. Hey, Matthew. This is Johnny. So yeah, pipeline is still relatively, you know, healthy, I think for us. Just keep in mind Q4 typically is, due to seasonality, you know, impact, it might be moderated a bit. The majority of the, you know, what’s in the pipeline right now certainly are still predominantly the, you know, residential mortgage, CRE-related type of prospects or deals that we have. At the same time, we are basically bringing more prospects, if you will, in the pipeline that’s under discussions, you know, within the C&I, including, you know, our SBA side of the pipeline is still maintained pretty healthy. Unfortunately, as you know, with the government shutdown, it does impact the funding of the SBA loans that we currently have on hand.

We have to see how that plays out and, you know, how long that might take as far as the government shutdown is concerned. C&I, you know, it is a relationship-driven business, and those typically require a little bit more time. The good thing is that we do have a number of good, I think, quality prospects that we’re talking to right now. For as far as the contribution to the overall growth, obviously, I would think it’s still predominantly SFR, CRE type of products that would be driving, still, that growth.

Matthew Clark, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Ali, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Andrew Terrell with Stephens. Your line is live.

Hey, good morning. This is Jackson Lauren on for Andrew Terrell.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Great. Hey, Jackson.

Brendan Nosal, Analyst, Hovde Group: Hey, Jackson.

Just quickly to start off, I’m not sure if I missed this in the release or presentation, but was there any interest recovery during the third quarter?

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: For the third quarter, I would say that we did not have in net interest income much, kind of anomalies with either interest reversal or interest recapture. You know, there wasn’t much activity there. Fortunately, credit was stabilizing, and you don’t have that noise in the third quarter financial information.

Got it. That’s helpful. Thank you. Just the last one quickly from me. On the $50 million of the FHLB advances that matured and were replaced by broker during the quarter, can you just remind us what rate those were maturing at and what rates you were replacing those with? Also, when those occurred during the quarter?

The FHLB advances matured on the last day of the quarter, and we had put them on a year earlier. They were at a rate of 3.40%. The wholesale brokered markets short term was probably up closer to 4%.

Got it. Thank you. That’s helpful. The rest of my questions have been answered. Congrats on the good quarter.

Great. Thanks, Jackson.

Ali, Conference Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions or comments, you may press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question is coming from Kelly Motta with KBW. Your line is live.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Hey, thank you for the question. Maybe circling back to the margin, just a commentary about the perhaps lagging deposit betas. You’ve done a tremendous job expanding the margin now the past, I don’t know, like five quarters. Wondering, you know, if we get another rate cut, would you anticipate that you’re still able to offset the impact of, of, on the earning asset side with declines in deposits in order to improve your margin? Or could there be a modest net drag if we get an additional cut here this quarter? Thanks.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Sure, Kelly. I would say there’s probably a few things that we have opportunities that I’m going to say outpace, I think, the impact of a rate cut and the stiff competition for liquidity. I would say that, as we look at it, we do view ourselves as liability-sensitive, although it is modest. We’re probably looking at just a handful of basis points. I think we would look for the margin to expand. Really, I think the opportunity has been in the origination and production platform that we’ve been working on. With the loan growth and the yields that we’ve been bringing the new production on with, that is pulling up on the earning asset yield more than what we’ve been able to achieve on managing the funding costs.

I think with the rate cut, while that might push down on earning asset yields, we would expect it also to push down on our funding costs. I don’t know if you want to add anything, Johnny.

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Maybe I’ll just add a couple comments. Kelly, if you recall, past quarters, we basically suggested we always, you know, obviously on the credit, the origination side, we always try to hold our line on the yield. Obviously, credit quality first, and then secondly, we try to price our loans appropriately, based upon the opportunity that we see with the relationships that we bring in. I think so far, obviously, we’ve been trying to stay as disciplined as possible, maintaining good origination with good yields. We continue to try to make an effort to do that, but obviously, there’s competition out there, and we would continue to look at each deal individually to determine what would make sense as far as the overall pricing of a relationship, if you will.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Do you happen to have, I apologize if I missed it, what the average rate was on new originations last quarter?

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Yeah, the originations, it was $670 million.

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Yeah, 670.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Great.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Awesome. Maybe last for me would be just on the capital. You’ve touched on your kind of thoughts on the buyback. Historically, RBB Bancorp has been an acquirer of some smaller banks. Obviously, the multiple makes it challenging, but you do have a ton of capital. Just wondering if you have any updated thoughts on how you’re thinking about, you know, other avenues of capital return here.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Fair question. I think we’ve been a little bit focused on how to demonstrate progress on credit, how to demonstrate progress on growing loans organically, controlling costs, and work on getting our currency to catch up to our tangible book value at least. I think then we would look for opportunities to, I think we’ve talked about, deepen relationships in the markets that we’re already in. I mentioned that we have some opportunity with our sub-debt refinancing next year. I think the buyback continues to be on the table. The other things are just investing in our business, growing the commercial platform. I think there’s some technology that we’re looking at. I think it’s all there, but it takes time, and there’s not one thing right now that I would put in front of another.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Got it. That’s helpful. Thank you. I’ll step back. Nice quarter, guys.

Lynn Hopkins, Chief Financial Officer, RBB Bancorp: Thanks, Kelly.

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Thank you.

Ali, Conference Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as we have no further questions on the line at this time, I would like to turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks.

Johnny Lee, President and CEO, RBB Bancorp: Okay, thank you. Once again, thank you for joining us today. We look forward to speaking to many of you in the coming days and weeks. Have a great day, everyone.

Ali, Conference Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

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