First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ:FFBC) reported its Q1 earnings results on Thursday, with EPS coming in at $0.76, better than the Street estimate of $0.71. Revenue was $214.9 million, beating the Street estimate of $204.26 million.
This was another solid revenue quarter with steady loan growth, margin expansion and very strong fee income performance. Loans increased 1.3% sequentially to $10.4 billion with growth driven by Summit (up $84 million) and mortgage (up $63 million), which offset smaller declines in other categories.
Expenses were lower and credit remains stable. Overall results compared favorably to peers that have reported, and analysts at RBC Capital see momentum at the franchise, though they expect rising deposit betas to moderate the margin from here.