Bank of the Ozarks Inc. of Little Rock announced net income for the third quarter grew by 21.3 percent to $32.1 million.
Profits were backed by record quarterly net interest income of $74.6 million, a 47.4 percent increase from a year ago.
“Our ability to organically grow our portfolio of high quality, good yielding loans and leases has contributed significantly to our growth and profitability in recent years,” said George Gleason, chairman and chief executive officer.
“Our balance of non-purchased loans and leases outstanding increased a record $468 million in the quarter just ended and $1.01 billion for the first nine months of 2014. Additionally, our unfunded balance of closed loans increased $751 million during the quarter just ended and $1.37 billion for the first nine months of 2014, growing to $2.58 billion at September 30.”
Other quarterly records were for set for service charges on deposit accounts, a 26.5 percent increase to $7.36 million; and trust income, a 33.9 percent increase to $1.42 million.
The company also recorded net income of $83.9 million for the nine months ending Sept. 30, a 25.5 percent increase compared to 2013.
Bank of the Ozarks is in the process of completing its fourth acquisition since last summer. The $228.5 million stock-swap purchase of Intervest Bancshares Corp. is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. The $1.6 billion-asset Intervest operates six Florida locations in the Clearwater market.
The acquisition will push Bank of the Ozarks to about $7.8 billion in total assets, second only to Arvest Bank Group Inc. of Bentonville among bank holding companies based in Arkansas.
Earlier this month, Bank of the Ozarks announced a half-cent increase in its quarterly cash dividend to 12.5 cents per share. The new dividend, payable Oct. 24 to shareholders of record as of Oct. 17, marks the 17th consecutive quarterly increase for the company.
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