Staff Reports
First Financial Bancorp, based in Cincinnati, reported 2015 net income of $75.1 million, or $1.21 per diluted common share, a 15.5 percent increase from the previous year.
In 2014, the company reported net income of $65 million or $1.09 per diluted common share.
For the three months ending Dec. 31, First Financial reported net income of $19.8 million, or 32 cents per diluted common share, compared to net income of $18.7 million in the third quarter of 2015, or 30 cents per diluted common share. The company reported net income of $18.6 million, or 30 cents per diluted common share, in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Fourth quarter results include about $1 million of pre-tax, non-operating expenses related to severance benefits. Excluding those items, net income was $20.5 million, or 33 cents per diluted common share. Return on average assets was 1.02 percent and return on average tangible common equity was 13.4 percent.
Full-year results included about $5 million of pre-tax, non-operating expenses, related to the severance expense and expenses related to the Oak Street acquisition and adjustments to reserves for litigation-related items.
Excluding those items, net income for the year ending Dec. 31 was $78.3 million, or $1.27 per diluted common share. The return on average assets was 1.04 percent and return on average tangible common equity was 13.2 percent.
Claude Davis, chief executive officer for First Financial Bancorp, said the fourth quarter of 2015 marked the company’s 100th consecutive quarter of profitability. First Financial Bank has Columbus offices at 125 Third St., 3950 Jonathan Moore Pike and 2531 Eastbrook Plaza.
