On Tuesday, BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
Benzinga APIs provide real-time access to earnings call transcripts and financial data. Visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ to learn more.
The full earnings call is available at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/352403635
Summary
BOK Financial reported earnings of $155.8 million, or $2.58 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2026, with consistent execution across the company.
Total loans grew by $536 million or 2.1% sequentially, with significant growth in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona, and a strong performance across fee-based businesses.
Expenses decreased by $6.9 million, achieving an efficiency ratio of 63.2%, reflecting successful cost management efforts.
The company maintained strong capital levels with a tangible common equity of 9.3% and CET1 at 12.6%, while credit quality remained robust with non-performing assets reduced to 20 basis points.
Fee income totaled $209.8 million, exceeding three of the past four quarters, with notable growth in mortgage banking revenue and customer hedging activity.
Management expressed confidence in the loan portfolio’s growth potential and highlighted strong syndication activity in the first quarter.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Greetings. Welcome to BOK Financial Corporation’s first quarter first 2026 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, simply press STAR followed by the number one on your telephone keypad and if you’d like to withdraw that question again, press Star one. Thank you. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Heather King, Director of Investor Relations for BOK Financial Corporation. Please proceed. Good afternoon and thank you for joining our discussion of BOK Financial’s first quarter 2026 financial results. Our CEO Stacy Kimes will provide opening comments, cover the loan portfolio and related credit metrics, Scott Brower, Executive Vice President of Wealth Management will cover our fee based results and our CFO Marty Grunst will then discuss financial performance for the quarter as well as our forward guidance. The slide presentation and press release are available on our [email protected] we refer you to the disclaimers on slide 2 regarding any forward looking statements made during this call. I will now turn the call over to Stacy Kimes who will begin on slide four.
Stacy Kimes (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you Heather. We appreciate you joining the call. This afternoon we reported earnings of 155.8 million or EPS of $2.58 per diluted share for the first quarter. What stood out this quarter was the consistency of execution across the company and how our teams continue to build on the momentum we established in 2025. During the quarter, total loans grew 536 million or 2.1% sequentially. That growth was well distributed across the portfolio. We saw strong momentum last year and we’re encouraged to see that continue. Pipelines remain solid and business activity across our footprint and customer base has been constructive even with more macroeconomic uncertainty. Growth was also well balanced geographically across our franchise with Texas growing 208 million or 8% on an annualized basis, Oklahoma posting growth of 163 million or approximately 9% annualized, and Arizona increasing 236 million. Our fee based businesses also performed well even in an environment with elevated uncertainty and a rapidly changing macroeconomic backdrop. Fee revenue exceeded three of the past four quarters, reflecting the diversification and underlying strength of those platforms. Expenses declined meaningfully this quarter reflecting our continued focus on managing our core cost structure. Over the past several quarters we worked to better align expenses with market opportunities and customer needs. This quarter illustrates that progress. Expenses were down 6.9 million and we posted an efficiency ratio of 63.2%. Importantly, this quarter provides a clean view of a more typical expense profile with prior actions now embedded and temporary items. Less meaningful capital levels remain very strong with tangible common equity at 9.3% and CET1 at 12.6%. Slide 6 provides a closer look at our loan portfolio. Total outstanding loans grew 2.1% this quarter with strong growth across our core CNI portfolio, Energy and commercial real estate. Our core C and I loan portfolio, which represents our combined services and general business portfolios, grew 2.1% sequentially. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of growth in this portfolio reflecting long term sustained customer relationships. Health care loans decreased 1.3%. Loan production in this segment remains at record highs with a very strong pipeline. This business has also supported our fee income lines with strong syndication fees generated during the quarter. The reduction in loan balances this quarter is primarily related to cyclical payoff activity. We believe we are well positioned to grow this portfolio throughout the remainder of the year. Engineering loans grew this quarter increasing 4.3%. This marks another reversal of the payoff trends we discussed last year. We are not currently seeing clients seeking to add production capacity, yet our CRE business increased 3.7% compared to the prior quarter. We remain well within our concentration limits for this segment, which allows us to be selective about opportunities and deploy capital where structure terms and returns make sense. Mortgage finance loans total 228 million, an increase of 50 million from the fourth quarter. We are happy with the progress this business is making, but it’s important to note that the loan growth exhibited in the first quarter was driven by our existing businesses moving to Slide 7. It has become a thing for me to keep my comments short on this topic and I’m going to do that again this quarter. Credit quality remains strong. NPAs not guaranteed by the US government decreased 14 million to 52 million. The resulting non performing assets to period end loans and repossessed assets decreased 6 basis points to 20 basis points. Committed Criticized assets decreased this quarter, remaining very low relative to historical standards. We had net charge offs of just 1.9 million during the quarter, averaging 3 basis points over the last 12 months. I’ll reiterate that the limited charge offs we’ve seen show no patterns or concentrations that raise concerns about specific business lines or geographies. And I would also note proactively that we have virtually no exposure to private credit facilities over the long term. We do expect credit metrics to normalize in the near term. We continue to expect net charge offs to remain below historical averages. No provision was required this quarter. Our provision benefited from the favorable impact of higher projected oil prices in our energy portfolio and improved overall credit quality. This was offset by loan growth and a modest downward revision to economic forecast assumptions. Our combined allowance for credit losses is a healthy 323 million or 1.23% of outstanding loans. Overall credit performance this quarter was exceptionally strong and with that I’ll turn the call over to Scott.
Scott Brower (Executive Vice President of Wealth Management)
Thank you Stacy. Turning to our operating results for the quarter on slides 9 and 10, fee income remained solid this quarter despite the volatile market environment and macroeconomic backdrop of the quarter. Fees declined 5.1 million sequentially following a very strong fourth quarter. Fee income totaled 209.8 million, exceeding three of the past four quarters and underscoring the underlying strength of our fee based business in any market environment. Total trading revenue, which includes trading related net interest income increased modestly to 34.7 million from 34.1 million in the prior quarter. Customer hedging revenue grew 1.1 million as our energy customers predictably increased their hedging activity when higher short term crude oil prices presented themselves. Investment banking revenue, which includes investment banking and syndication fees decreased 4.1 million after delivering two outstanding quarters. Results reflect the normal seasonality of this business with a quieter first quarter before activity begins to build in the second quarter. I would note that the first quarter of 2026 is the strongest first quarter syndication activity on record. This result represents a 40% increase from the same quarter a year ago. Mortgage banking revenue grew 2 million linked quarter with higher production and refinance activity. Turning to Slide 10 to discuss our asset management and transactions businesses. Fiduciary and asset management revenue delivered strong results contributing 66.5 million to revenue. This was the second strongest quarter on record, only substantially lower.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company’s SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants’ and analysts’ statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
Recent Comments