Home BancShares Inc. (NYSE: HOMB) of Conway, the holding company for Centennial Bank, announced Tuesday that it’s setting aside $16.7 million as a reserve for loans impacted by Hurricane Milton.
The company has 78 branches in Florida, where Hurricane Milton made landfall in October.
Home BancShares has now set aside $33.4 million to cover potential hurricane-related loan losses this year. The bank previously set aside $16.7 million to cover loans affected by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida in September.
In a statement, Home BancShares Chair John Allison said the lender has paused payments for about $110 million in loans due to the hurricanes. It set aside more funds to cover potential losses “out of an abundance of caution,” he said.
“The two hurricanes spanned across the third and fourth quarter and the amount of time it takes for customers to settle with insurance will no doubt increase, with two back-to-back events,” Allison said.
The latest loan loss provision will weigh on the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings.
In the third quarter, the last-minute provision for Hurricane Helene dropped earnings to 50 cents per share when they had been on track for about 55 cents per share, Allison said. “Our quarter was shaping up very nicely … . But that all changed almost overnight due to circumstances beyond our control,” he said.
Profits still increased in the period. The company reported third-quarter income of $100 million, up 1.5% from $98.5 million in the same quarter in 2023.
Shares of the company rose nearly 1% to $30.76 Wednesday morning. Year to date, shares were up more than 21%.
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