Chesapeake Financial Shares Inc has reported its earnings for the calendar year 2022, revealing a record high and a sizeable jump compared to 2021.
The parent of Chesapeake Bank and Chesapeake Wealth Management posted earnings of over $17.6 million, a 17% increase from 2021. On a per diluted share basis, earnings were $3.73, up from $3.11 in 2021.
The company ended 2022 with total assets of more than $1.3 billion, a 4.1% decrease from 2021. Additionally, recoveries exceeded charge-offs for the year by $86,722 further, the company said, noting a strong asset quality.
WATCH: Chesapeake Financial Shares says its asset quality is "as good as it has every been"
"Our strong earnings were largely boosted by our strong net interest margin," CEO Jeffrey Szyperski said in a statement. "We were able to not increase our deposit rates on par with the Federal Reserve rate increases due to the high liquidity we maintained coming through the pandemic.”
He continued, “Additionally, we recorded a one-time gain of $1.7 million (net of tax) from the sale of our partial interest in an investment brokerage firm in the third quarter. The net interest margin was 3.93% for the quarter ended December 31, 2022.”
Chesapeake was also named one of American Banker's top 200 community banks in the US for the fifteenth consecutive year and one of its best banks to work for for the tenth consecutive year, the company said.
Meanwhile, the company’s board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, effective March 1, at a meeting last week. Chesapeake has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years, and its stock currently has a 2.78% dividend yield.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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