Pathfinder Bancorp Q2 profit falls 18 percent

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Pathfinder Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBHC), parent of Pathfinder Bank, recently reported that its profit slipped 18 percent in the second quarter.

Pathfinder announced on July 23 that its net income declined to $676,000 in the second quarter from $823,000 in the year-ago period. The profit decrease “was principally due to the sale of residential loans in the second quarter of 2013, which resulted in a net gain of $288,000, after tax, Pathfinder said in its earnings news release. The banking company did not have such a gain in the latest quarter.

Earnings per share fell to 25 cents a share in the second quarter from 33 cents a year earlier.

“The strong momentum in our growth pattern has continued through the second-quarter,” Tom Schneider, president and CEO of Pathfinder, said in the release. “We continue to be pleased with the rate of organic growth in our loan and deposit portfolios. Related growth in net interest income, however, has been somewhat muted by the prolonged low levels of interest rates.”

Schneider continued, “Net income has been adversely impacted by elevated operating expense levels which reflect the company’s efforts to attract and retain the necessary talent and implement the appropriate risk management capabilities in order to maintain and support our current growth trajectory.”

 Pathfinder’s net interest income increased by 5.5 percent to $4.1 million in the latest quarter. Its interest spread for the three months ended June 30, edged up to 3.35 percent from 3.29 percent in the same period in 2013.

The banking company’s noninterest income for the second quarter of this year decreased by 20.5 percent to $878,000 from $1.1 million in the prior-year period. Pathfinder recorded $395,000 in net gains ($288,000 after tax) from the sale of residential loans in an interest rate risk-management initiative to mitigate the risk of its liability-sensitive balance sheet, the news release stated. Partially offsetting this decrease was $121,000 in commissions earned in the three-month period ended June 30 from Pathfinder Risk ManagementCompany, Inc., which owns a 51 percent membership interest in Fitzgibbons Agency, LLC, which it acquired in the fourth quarter of 2013. 

Pathfinder Bank, a New York chartered savings bank headquartered in Oswego, has eight branch offices located in Oswego County and northern Onondaga County. The banking company said it is also scheduled to open a branch office in downtown Syracuse in this year’s third quarter.