What changed
EPS of $1.06 beat consensus of $0.98 by $0.08 or 8.2%. Revenue quality is solid as net interest income rose 2.6% QoQ and NIM expanded 4bps to 4.11%, driven by robust loan growth of 13.7% annualized. The market may miss that the efficiency ratio rose to 56.25% from 54.55% due to $0.9M in merger-related expenses and elevated incentive comp tied to loan growth, masking underlying cost discipline.