NBT looks to build on solid third quarter with growth

NORWICH, N.Y. — In spite of a volatile interest-rate environment, NBT Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB) reported third-quarter net income of $39 million, or 90 cents per share. That’s up more than 4 percent from $37.4 million, or 86 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

The quarter was marked not only with rising interest rates, but also with other macroeconomic conditions that made things challenging, John H. Watt, Jr., president and CEO of NBT Bancorp, parent of NBT Bank, told investors and analysts in an Oct. 26 conference call. 

“We are extremely pleased with our results for the third quarter of 2022,” he said. The banking company is even more excited for what the future holds, especially in the wake of what Watt described as Micron Technology’s “transformational investment” in the Central New York region.

Micron announced in early October that it would build a chip-manufacturing facility in Clay, creating 9,000 jobs over the next decade. On top of that, Watt said the project could generate up to 40,000 additional indirect jobs in supporting industries. Additionally, the state will invest $200 million in road and other infrastructure improvements. All of that activity bodes well for NBT, he said.

“We are at our best when we are playing our long game,” Watt told investors when asked by analyst Alex Twerdahl from Piper Sandler to elaborate on how NBT will benefit from Micron. “This is a long game that we intend to be involved in for a very long time.”

From having business-banking relationships with contractors that will vie for state bids on the infrastructure projects to its residential-mortgage product offerings and branches throughout the region, NBT is ready, to be a major partner in the growth Micron will bring, Watt says.

“Our franchise is uniquely positioned to play a role in the growth that is being created in the upstate New York chip corridor running through our core markets from greater Syracuse to the Mohawk Valley and Capital District,” Watt said.

Other financial highlights of the third quarter included a 21.6 percent year-over-year increase in net interest income to $94.5 million. The gain stems primarily from higher yields on earning assets and in spite of a $1 million decrease in net interest income from the Paycheck Protection Program to $300,000. 

Non-interest income was $37.3 million, down $3.1 million from a year ago. Card-services income had a $3.8 million impact from NBT being subject to the statutory price-cap provisions of the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act, which caps debit-card interchange fees for banks with more than $10 billion in assets. 

NBT’s subsidiary, NBT Insurance Agency, LLC, completed its acquisition of substantially all the assets of Harrison A. Rogers, Inc., during the quarter. The move, announced earlier this year, expands NBT’s insurance reach into the northern New York market where the company has an established presence through NBT Bank.

Through Oct. 31, NBT Bancorp’s stock price was up 23 percent year to date, compared to the overall stock market’s 19 percent decline in the same period, as measured by the benchmark S&P 500 Index.

NBT Bancorp, with $11.64 billion in total assets, is the holding company for NBT Bank, with 140 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut; EPIC Retirement Plan Services, a Rochester–based benefits-administration firm; and NBT Insurance Agency, LLC, a full-service insurance agency.