City Holding Company Announces Quarterly Results | Q1 2026

CHARLESTON, W.Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–City Holding Company (“Company” or “City”) (NASDAQ:CHCO), a $6.8 billion bank holding company headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia, today announced net income of $31.7 million and diluted earnings of $2.20 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. For the quarter ended March 31, 2026, the Company achieved a return on assets of 1.92% and a return on tangible equity of 19.3%.

Net Interest Income

The Company’s net interest income decreased approximately $1.0 million, or 1.6%, from $60.6 million during the fourth quarter of 2025 to $59.6 million during the first quarter of 2026. The Company’s tax equivalent net interest income decreased approximately $0.9 million, or 1.5%, from $60.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 to $59.9 million for the first quarter of 2026. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in the yield on loans and a decrease in the yield on investments which decreased net interest income by $1.5 million and $1.1 million, respectively. The decline in net interest income due to the decrease in the yield on investments was primarily attributable to the maturities of $150 million of swap agreements in October 2025 ($50 million) and November 2025 ($100 million). In addition, net interest income decreased $0.4 million due to a decrease in the average balances of investments ($36.1 million) and $0.3 million due to a decrease in average balances of deposits in depository institutions ($34.9 million).

These decreases were partially offset by a decrease in the cost of interest bearing liabilities (11 basis points) and an increase in average loans outstanding ($60.5 million), which increased net interest income by $1.6 million and $0.9 million, respectively. The Company’s reported net interest margin improved from 3.94% for the fourth quarter of 2025 to 3.97% for the first quarter of 2026.

Credit Quality

The Company’s ratio of nonperforming assets to total loans and other real estate owned decreased from 0.32%, or $14.4 million, at December 31, 2025 to 0.27%, or $12.2 million, at March 31, 2026. Total past due loans increased modestly from $8.5 million, or 0.19% of total loans outstanding, at December 31, 2025, to $8.8 million, or 0.20% of total loans outstanding, at March 31, 2026.

As a result of the Company’s quarterly analysis of the adequacy of the allowance for credit losses, the Company recorded a provision for credit losses of $0.6 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to no provision for credit losses for the comparable period in 2025, and a provision for credit losses of $1.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. The provision for credit losses in the first quarter of 2026 was primarily related to a commercial loan for a movie theater that had been transferred to nonaccrual status in the third quarter of 2024. Due to further cash flow deterioration, a $0.85 million charge-off was recorded in the quarter ending March 31, 2026, leaving an outstanding balance of approximately $5.0 million. This charge-off was partially offset by a decline in loan balances from the fourth quarter of 2025 and net recoveries (exclusive of the movie theater charge-off) during the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

Non-interest Income

Non-interest income increased $0.9 million from $18.7 million in the first quarter of 2025 to $19.6 million in the first quarter of 2026. This increase was due to an increase of $0.4 million, or 14.3%, in wealth and investment management fee income, a $0.3 million, or 43.6%, increase in other income, and an increase of $0.2 million, or 3.4%, in service charges. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in bank owned life insurance of $0.2 million.

Non-interest Expenses

Non-interest expenses increased $1.8 million, or 4.6%, from $37.6 million in the first quarter of 2025 to $39.4 million in the first quarter of 2026. This increase was largely due to an increase in salaries and employee benefit expenses ($1.0 million due to salary adjustments (3.5%) and increased health insurance (11.3%)), other tax related matters ($0.4 million), and equipment and software related expenses ($0.2 million).

Balance Sheet Trends

Loans decreased $11.3 million (0.3%) from December 31, 2025 to $4.50 billion at March 31, 2026. Commercial and industrial loans decreased $12.4 million and consumer loans decreased $4.4 million during the quarter ended March 31, 2026. These decreases were partially offset by increases in residential real estate loans of $3.3 million (0.2%) and commercial real estate loans of $1.6 million (0.1%).

Period-end deposit balances increased $42.6 million from December 31, 2025, to March 31, 2026. Total average depository balances decreased $15.4 million (0.3%) from the quarter ended December 31, 2025 to the quarter ended March 31, 2026 to $5.27 billion. Average interest-bearing demand balances decreased $20.0 million and average balances of noninterest-bearing demand deposits decreased $13.0 million. These decreases were partially offset by increases in savings deposit balances of $13.8 million and average time deposits of $3.8 million.

Income Tax Expense

The Company’s effective income tax rate for the first quarter of 2026 was 19.2%, compared to 19.2% for the year ended December 31, 2025, and 17.8% for the quarter ended March 31, 2025.

Capitalization and Liquidity

The Company’s loan to deposit ratio was 84.1% and the loan to asset ratio was 66.5% at March 31, 2026. The Company maintained investment securities totaling 21.8% of assets as of the same date. The Company’s deposit mix is weighted heavily toward checking and saving accounts, which fund 59.7% of assets at March 31, 2026. Time deposits funded 19.4% of assets at March 31, 2026, with only 14.9% of time deposits having balances of more than $250,000, reflecting the core retail orientation of the Company.

City Holding Company is the parent company of City National Bank of West Virginia (“City National”). City National has borrowing facilities with the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank that can be accessed as necessary to fund operations and to provide contingency funding. These borrowing facilities are collateralized by various loans held on City National’s balance sheet. As of March 31, 2026, City National had the capacity to borrow an additional $1.8 billion from these existing borrowing facilities. In addition, approximately $709 million of City National’s investment securities were pledged to collateralize customer repurchase agreements and various deposit accounts, leaving approximately $762 million of City National’s investment securities unpledged at March 31, 2026.

The Company continues to be strongly capitalized with tangible equity of $637 million at March 31, 2026. The Company’s tangible equity ratio decreased from 9.9% at December 31, 2025 to 9.7% at March 31, 2026. At March 31, 2026, City National’s Leverage Ratio was 9.2%, its Common Equity Tier I ratio was 14.4%, its Tier I Capital ratio was 14.4%, and its Total Risk-Based Capital ratio was 14.8%. These regulatory capital ratios are significantly above levels required to be considered “well capitalized,” which is the highest possible regulatory designation.

On March 25, 2026, the Board of Directors of the Company approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.87 per share, payable April 30, 2026, to shareholders of record as of April 15, 2026. On March 25, 2026, the Company announced that the Board of Directors authorized the Company to buy back up to 1,000,000 shares of its common stock (approximately 7% of outstanding shares) in open market transactions at prices that are accretive to the earnings per share of continuing shareholders (the “2026 Program”). No time limit was placed on the duration of the 2026 Program. As part of this authorization, the Company terminated its previous repurchase program that was approved in January 2024 (the “2024 Program”). The Company had repurchased 822,634 shares under the 2024 Program. During the quarter ended March 31, 2026, the Company repurchased 262,017 common shares at a weighted average price of $117.79 per share as part of a one million share repurchase plan authorized by the Board of Directors in January 2024. As of March 31, 2026, the Company could repurchase approximately 985,000 shares under the current plan (2026 Program).

City National operates 96 branches across West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Ohio.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that are included pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements express only management’s beliefs regarding future results or events and are subject to inherent uncertainty, risks, and changes in circumstances, many of which are outside of management’s control. Uncertainty, risks, changes in circumstances and other factors could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to those set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 under “ITEM 1A Risk Factors” and the following: (1) general economic conditions, especially in the communities and markets in which we conduct our business; (2) credit risk, including risk that negative credit quality trends may lead to a deterioration of asset quality, risk that our allowance for credit losses may not be sufficient to absorb actual losses in our loan portfolio, and risk from concentrations in our loan portfolio; (3) changes in the real estate market, including the value of collateral securing portions of our loan portfolio; (4) changes in the interest rate environment; (5) operational risk, including cybersecurity risk and risk of fraud, data processing system failures, and network breaches; (6) changes in technology and increased competition, including competition from non-bank financial institutions or financial technology companies; (7) changes in consumer preferences, spending and borrowing habits, demand for our products and services, and customers’ performance and creditworthiness; (8) difficulty growing loan and deposit balances; (9) our ability to effectively execute our business plan, including with respect to future acquisitions; (10) changes in regulations, laws, taxes, government policies, monetary policies and accounting policies affecting bank holding companies and their subsidiaries; (11) deterioration in the financial condition of the U.S. banking system may impact the valuations of investments the Company has made in the securities of other financial institutions; (12) regulatory enforcement actions and adverse legal actions; (13) difficulty attracting and retaining key employees; and (14) other economic, competitive, technological, operational, governmental, regulatory, and market factors affecting our operations. Forward-looking statements made herein reflect management’s expectations as of the date such statements are made. Such information is provided to assist stockholders and potential investors in understanding current and anticipated financial operations of the Company and is included pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date such statements are made. Further, the Company is required to evaluate subsequent events through the filing of its March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q. The Company will continue to evaluate the impact of any subsequent events on the preliminary March 31, 2026 results and will adjust the amounts if necessary.