Simmons First National Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Simmons First National NASDAQ: SFNC executives said the bank is seeing early progress from deposit, lending and efficiency initiatives, while cautioning that competition for deposits and loans remains intense across its markets. During the company’s second quarter 2026 earnings call, President and CEO Jay Brogdon and CFO Daniel Hobbs described a quarter marked by higher-quality deposit growth, strong loan production, continued expense discipline and ongoing investments in talent and technology. Management also said it remains comfortable with several full-year outlook items issued earlier in the year.

Hobbs said deposits remain “one of our biggest focuses strategically” and will likely be an area of significant investment over the next 12 to 24 months. He pointed to 4% annualized growth in non-interest-bearing deposits during the second quarter, calling those balances the “highest quality” deposits. Hobbs also said average balances in interest-bearing money market and savings accounts grew, even though ending balances declined. The bank is seeing early results from marketing campaigns, efforts to attract new customers, work to deepen existing relationships and initiatives to reduce attrition, Hobbs said. He added that Simmons had more inflows from new customer balances than outflows during the quarter. Checking accounts grew more than 1% both year over year and linked quarter, which Hobbs said was evidence that deposit initiatives are beginning to pay off.

Brogdon said the competitive environment remains challenging. “Deposit competition is very, very fierce,” he said, adding that he expects that backdrop to continue. He said the bank’s ability to grow in higher-quality funding categories despite that environment was encouraging. Hobbs said Simmons is taking an opportunistic approach to wholesale funding, including brokered deposits and Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings. He said the company leaned more into FHLB funding during the quarter because pricing was more advantageous, while remaining short duration in both brokered deposits and borrowings.

Brogdon said he remains encouraged by loan growth. Simmons previously provided a low- to mid-single-digit loan growth outlook for 2026, and Brogdon said the bank was at roughly 7% annualized loan growth year to date, placing it near the top end of that outlook halfway through the year. Second-quarter loan growth was not as strong as the first quarter, but Brogdon said that was not due to weak production. He said quarterly committed production was near a four-year high and fit within the bank’s credit underwriting and pricing standards. Production was partially offset by an expected level of paydowns.