Banner posts $235 million in organic loan growth, expects momentum into 2027
Key Facts
Banner expects mid-single-digit loan growth to continue into 2027, according to an earnings call summary published by Investing.com, after recording organic loan growth in the third quarter of 2026. Organic growth totaled $235 million during the quarter, according to the site's coverage of the company's quarterly earnings presentation. That increase represents an annualized growth rate of 8%, with management's outlook for the coming period following an expansion of the lending portfolio during the quarter. In the previous quarter, Banner reported a $286 million quarter-on-quarter increase in loans held for investment, according to its second-quarter earnings presentation filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The second-quarter increase represented an annualized rate of 10%, compared with the 8% rate of organic growth reported in the third quarter. On earnings, the company posted earnings per share of $1.36 in the third quarter, according to the earnings report published by Investing.com. Revenue for the same period totaled $177.3 million, coinciding with the quarter in which Pacific Financial's merger into Banner was completed.
Pacific Financial's merger into Banner took effect on September 1, 2026, according to the company's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on completion of the transaction. The merger terms provided for each outstanding share of Pacific Financial common stock to be converted into the right to receive Banner common stock. The terms set the exchange ratio at 0.2633 Banner shares for each Pacific Financial share, according to the same filing. When the deal was announced, Banner expected the transaction, once closed, to be immediately accretive to earnings per share for 2027. That estimate excluded nonrecurring transaction expenses, meaning the earnings accretion forecast in the merger announcement was calculated without those expenses.
The original deal presentation, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, included a cost savings target equivalent to 40% of Pacific Financial's noninterest expenses. The presentation estimated those savings at $16.4 million, based on 2027 expense estimates for the acquired company. The 40% figure thus referred to the amount of Pacific Financial's expenses targeted for reduction, while the presentation set out a separate schedule for phasing in the savings. That schedule assumed 75% of the savings would be recognized during calendar year 2027, as part of the original financial assumptions Banner presented for the deal. After 2027, the presentation assumed 100% of the savings would be recognized, compared with the partial recognition specified for the previous year in the deal model.
In the market, Banner shares, which trade under the ticker BANR, closed at $68.05 on October 21, 2026, according to EL7 data. Investing.com's earnings call summary, in an update dated October 22, 2026, reported that the shares rose 1.45% after the results. The price cited in that update was $69.04 per share, following the release of quarterly results and management's loan growth outlook. On the implementation of savings, the chief financial officer said on the earnings call that "the final 10% of cost savings will be realized by the middle of next year, let's say early July," setting an approximate date in 2027 for the final portion. That date will be preceded by an operational step the company announced when it completed the acquisition, as it plans to integrate systems in November. According to the deal completion statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the systems integration will bring all operations under the Banner brand.