Peoples Bancorp 1st-qtr profit plunges on toxic asset writedown, bad loans

Peoples Bancorp 1Q profit plunges 79 percent

MARIETTA, Ohio — Peoples Bancorp said Tuesday that its first-quarter profit dropped 79 percent as it wrote off an investment and more bad loans.

The bank also increased the amount of money it set aside to cover other souring loans.

For the three months ended March 31, the community bank posted net income of $802,000, or 8 cents per share, compared with profit of $3.9 million, or 37 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Peoples booked an impairment charge of $1 million, or 6 cents per share in the quarter, to reflect the write-off of the bank’s remaining investment in collateralized debt obligation securities. Peoples no longer has any exposure to CDO investments within its portfolio.

Net interest income, or money earned from deposits, was $15.4 million, down slightly from $15.5 million last year.

Non-interest income, or earnings from fees and charges, slipped 3 percent to $8 million, from $8.2 million a year ago.

The bank increased its provision to cover loans of deteriorating quality by 6 percent, to $6.5 million, from the 2009 first quarter.

Net loan charge-offs more than doubled to $7.2 million, up from $2.9 million in the 2009 first quarter. The recent quarter included a $1.5 million write-down on a commercial real estate loan.

Nonperforming assets, or loans considered past due and in danger of being written off, decreased 8 percent to $35.9 million, from $38.8 million.

Total deposits were flat at $1.2 billion.

Total loan balances were $1.05 billion essentially unchanged from $1.1 billion.

In afternoon trading, shares of Peoples Bancorp Inc. added 26 cents to $16.84.