Sterling Financial Corp., of Spokane, posted this afternoon first-quarter net income of $22.7 million, or 36 cents a diluted share, compared with net income of $13.3 million, or 21 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.
Greg Seibly, Sterling's president and CEO, said in a press release that the company had strong organic loan growth, and its net interest margin expanded. Also, he said, the company reduced its operating expenses and improved asset quality.
"The financial results for the first quarter featured strong performance against all of our key operating objectives," Seibly said.
The company increased its quarterly cash dividend by 33 percent to 20 cents per share.
In the first quarter, Sterling completed its acquisition of La Mesa, Calif.-based American Heritage Holdings, parent company of Borrego Springs Bank. The acquisition added $103.7 million in gross loans and $117.7 million in deposits to Sterling, which had $6.5 billion in total loan balances and $6.6 billion in total deposits as of March 31.
Sterling currently has 12 branches in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area.