Investar Holding Corporation Announces 2026 Third Quarter Results

John D'Angelo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Investar Holding Corporation

“I am extremely pleased with our third quarter results, which reflect both the significant impact of our transformational acquisition of Wichita Falls Bancshares, Inc. ("WFB") and our continued execution of our strategy of consistent, quality earnings through the optimization of our balance sheet. Our net interest margin improved substantially to 3.73%, a six basis point increase from previous quarter, and we posted strong results for our core metrics including diluted earnings per common share, return on average assets and efficiency ratio. We were able to grow the yield on interest-earning assets while maintaining low funding costs by replacing a portion of our higher cost brokered time deposits and time deposits with lower cost, non-maturing deposits. We continued our strategy of allowing the consumer mortgage loans acquired from WFB to run off and replaced them with production in our business lending portfolio, primarily through the origination of higher yielding commercial and industrial loans. We remain enthusiastic about our positioning for future growth both organically and through potential acquisitions. Additionally, on October 1, 2026, we purchased commercial and industrial, variable-rate revolving lines of credit totaling $65.0 million. The addition of these variable-rate products, combined with new loan production coming on at higher rates, supports our efforts to remix the loan portfolio and optimize the balance sheet. As always, we remain focused on shareholder value and returning capital to shareholders. We repurchased 25,113 shares of our common stock during the third quarter at an average price of $29.44 per share.”