Southwest Georgia Financial Corporation, a full-service community bank holding company, today reported its results of operations for the third quarter ended September 30, 2014.

Third Quarter and Nine-Month Income Highlights

• Net income increased 24% to $804 thousand in the third quarter of 2014, or $0.32 per diluted share, from $651 thousand, or $0.25 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2013.
  • For the nine months ended September 30, 2014, net income was $2.2 million, or $0.88 per diluted share, a 25% increase from $1.8 million, or $0.70 per diluted share, for the same period in the prior year.
  • Net interest income grew approximately 5% in both the third quarter and year-to-date period over the comparable periods of 2013, due to lower deposit costs combined with increased revenue from a higher volume of earning assets.
  • Noninterest income improved slightly to $1.3 million and $3.9 million for the third quarter and year-to-date period, respectively, over the comparable periods of 2013.

Balance Sheet Trends and Asset Quality

• Total assets at September 30, 2014 were $381 million, an increase of 2.4% from September 30, 2013.
• Total loans increased 2.0% to $226 million over the same period last year, even as the wind down of loans retained from the Company’s mortgage banking subsidiary, Empire Financial, continues.
• Total deposits grew $2.6 million, or 1.0%, to $311 million at September 30, 2014, from the third quarter of 2013.  Net deposit growth was primarily in noninterest-bearing transaction accounts.
• Assets quality remains strong with extraordinarily low levels of non-performing assets.

DeWitt Drew, President and CEO commented, “We delivered another strong quarter with solid earnings growth.  Our low cost deposit base continues to be put to work to support lending in our communities while maintaining our high credit standards.  Strong loan growth in our local markets successfully replaced the decline in loans retained from our mortgage banking subsidiary, Empire Financial, as that portfolio winds down.  The loans retained from Empire were $14 million at quarter end, down from $24 million this time last year.”

Dividends

In September 2014, the Corporation paid a quarterly cash dividend of $0.08 per common share.  Southwest Georgia Financial Corporation or its predecessor, Southwest Georgia Bank, has paid cash dividends for 86 consecutive years.