Southwest Georgia Financial Corporation, a full-service community bank holding company, today reported its results of operations for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2013.

Fourth Quarter and Year-End Income Highlights

• Net income was $982 thousand in the 2013 fourth quarter, or $0.39 per diluted share, compared with $642 thousand, or $0.25 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2012.

• For the year ended December 31, 2013, net income was $2.8 million, or $1.09 per diluted share, a 43.0% increase when compared with $1.9 million, or $0.76 per diluted share, for the same period in the prior year. Earnings growth was driven by higher net interest income resulting from continued loan growth.

• Year-to-date and quarter-to-date net income were affected by a $736 thousand (for the year) decrease in commercial mortgage banking revenue. Partially offsetting the decrease was a fourth quarter gain on sale of holdings of Fannie Mae preferred stock.

  Balance Sheet Trends and Asset Quality

• Total assets at December 31, 2013 were $373.9 million, an increase of 7.7%, or $26.7 million from December 31, 2012.

• Total loans increased $14.6 million, or 7.1%, to $218.7 million compared with the same period last year. The growth in loans was funded by increases in noninterest-bearing and money market deposits.

• Total deposits grew $18.7 million to $310.4 million at December 31, 2013, an increase of 6.4% from the end of 2012.

• Our non-performing asset ratio was 0.36% at December 31, 2013, a 17 basis point improvement when compared with 0.53% at the end of 2012.

  Capital Management

  • The Company has a Total Risk-Based Capital Ratio of 15.44% and a Leverage Capital Ratio of 8.73%, both measurably above the federal “well capitalized” standard.

  • Return on equity increased to 12.50% compared with 8.68% in the fourth quarter of 2012. For the year, return on equity increased to 9.02% from 6.62% for 2012.

  • Tangible book value per share at December 31, 2013, was $12.29, up from $11.60 at the end of 2012.

    DeWitt Drew, President and CEO commented, “The driver of our growth has been increases in noninterest-bearing accounts. The majority of these funds are employed in short-term investments with the Federal Reserve earning very little interest in the current environment and also creating very little credit risk. Strong asset quality metrics, improved earnings performance, and the nature of our growth allow us to remain confident in the quality of our capital.”

Dividends

In December 2013, the Corporation paid a fourth quarter cash dividend of $0.08 per common share. The Corporation paid dividends of $0.20 per common share in 2013 compared with $0.16 per common share in 2012. Southwest Georgia Financial Corporation or its predecessor, Southwest Georgia Bank, has paid cash dividends for 85 consecutive years.