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FEATURED
United Bankshares Inc. announces earnings
WASHINGTON, D.C. and CHARLESTON — United Bankshares Inc. announced earnings for the third quarter and first nine months of 2007. Third quarter earnings were $25.8 million or $0.60 per diluted share while earnings for the first nine months of 2007 were $74.7 million or $1.79 per diluted share.
During the quarter, United completed its acquisition of Premier Community Bankshares Inc. (Premier) with total assets of approximately $911 million based in Winchester, Va. The acquisition of Premier expands United’s presence in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and allows United to enter new Virginia markets in the Winchester, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and Staunton-Waynesboro MSAs. The financial results of Premier are included in United’s results from the July 14, 2007, acquisition date.
Earnings for the third quarter of 2006 were $14.2 million or $0.34 per diluted share. These results included significant charges to prepay certain Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) long-term advances. The prepayment of these advances resulted in before-tax penalties of approximately $8.2 million. United also terminated interest rate swaps associated with these advances which resulted in a before-tax loss of approximately $7.7 million. Earnings for the first nine months of 2006 were $64.2 million or $1.53 per diluted share. In addition to the significant charges mentioned above incurred in the third quarter of 2006, the results for the first nine months of 2006 included the results of a repositioning of United’s balance sheet in the first quarter of 2006. The balance sheet repositioning resulted in a before-tax loss of $2.9 million on the sale of low-yielding fixed rate investment securities and a before-tax gain of $3.1 million on the termination of an interest rate swap associated with the prepayment of an FHLB advance.
During the third quarter, United’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.28 per share, which represented a 4% increase over the $0.27 per share dividend paid for the third quarter of 2006. Dividends per share of $0.84 for the first three quarters of 2007 also represented a 4% increase over the $0.81 per share paid for the first three quarters of 2006. The annualized first three quarters' dividend of $0.84 per share equals $1.12 which would represent the thirty-fourth consecutive year of dividend increases for United shareholders.
United has consolidated assets of approximately $7.7 billion with 114 full service offices in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and Washington, D.C. United Bankshares stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the quotation symbol "UBSI.”
