Image source: The Motley Fool.
Equity Bancshares, Inc. (EQBK -0.96%)
Q1Â 2019 Earnings Call
April 23, 2019, 10:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to 2019 Q1 Earnings Conference Call for Equity Bancshares, Inc. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session and our instructions will be given at that time.
(Operator Instructions)
As a reminder, this conference call maybe recorded for replay purposes.
It is now my pleasure to hand the conference over to Mr. Jacob Willis, Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Jacob Willis -- Investor Relations Officer
Good morning, and thank you for joining our Equity Bancshares presentation and conference call, which will include discussion and presentation of our first quarter 2019 results. Joining me today are Equity Bancshares Chairman and CEO, Brad Elliott; Equity Bancshares Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Greg Kossover and Equity Bank Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, Craig Mayo.
Presentation slides to accompany our call are available for download at investor.equitybank.com. The presentation accompanies discussion of our first quarter results and is available by clicking the Presentation tab to download the PDF. You may also click the Event icon for today's call posted at investor.equitybank.com. If you're viewing this call on our webcast player, please note that slides will not automatically advance.
Please note Slide 2 including important information regarding forward-looking-statements. From time-to-time, we may make forward-looking-statements within today's call and actual results may differ. Following the presentation, we will allow time for questions and further discussion.
Thank you all for joining us. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Brad Elliot.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning. Thank you for joining the Equity Bancshares first quarter 2019 earnings call. Greg and I will be discussing our first quarter 2019 results in a moment. Craig Mayo, our Chief Credit Officer is also joining us today. As noted in our 8-K earnings release, you know we will be discussing a credit relationship that we have taken a provision against as of March 31, 2019. Greg will walk through the impact of this credit on our financial performance, as well as the operating performance of the Company with and without this provision for credit loss.
In 2011, we entered a relationship with a strong borrower, who specialized in increasing revenues and profitability of under-performing companies. We had a significant banking relationship with this borrower for several years, and they performed well and ultimately sold two of their portfolio companies for substantial profits. They bought a franchisor with approximately 80 operating licenses, and grew it during the course of their ownership.
We also financed the purchase of a second franchisor company that was under-performing, but with good name recognition. We anticipated they could continue to manage as they had in the earlier concepts, and turn them substantially profitable and generate terminal value. We were comfortable the new relationship remained adequately secured with personal guarantees, cross collateralization with a profitable company, and based on the extent of the pledged personal assets. Unfortunately, as they continued to borrow funds on personal assets, from equity and other financial institutions, for capital injections, the ability to service debt on the overall structure began to deteriorate.
Craig, would you please take us through the recent events.
Craig Anderson -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
In the fourth quarter of 2018, these borrowers came to Equity and they asked us to advance funds, which we declined. Under the premise, it was time for the companies to cash flow their obligations or to execute on the sale of the businesses, which they had committed to complete in previous quarters. The approximate balance of the loans were $19.2 million for the larger company and $9 million for the smaller company.
There were at least two letters of intent to purchase the larger company for amounts sufficient to pay off our credits on both companies. All the credits are crossed collateralized and secured by personal guarantees from the borrowers. And as of December 31, 2018, the loans were current. In January, the borrowers filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for both companies, one with a positive cash flow and one without a positive cash flow. We presumed this was not strictly because of Equity Banks' debt, but also because of the obligations to other institutions.
We prepared an impairment analysis in the first quarter, for December 31, 2018, using the data points available at the time for the larger credit, including the most recent LOI from December 2018 and the early indications of a stalking horse bidder for the smaller company mentioned above. The calculation did not show an impairment and therefore, no specific loan loss was provided on these credits, or warranted at that time. We did place the credits on non-accrual late in the first quarter.
In late March, the smaller company was auctioned in bankruptcy to a stalking horse bidder for an amount that was acceptable to us and in the range of values we had used in determining that the overall valuation for the relationship was adequate. For various reasons, the bidder did not close and a second bidder was found in early April for an amount substantially less than the first bidder. As of today, the second bidder has not closed, but we believe it will complete the transaction in the next few weeks.
In early April, we received the most current trailing 13 periods of operating performance from the larger company and our analysis shows that although profitable, this company may not sell in the future at the level indicated in the previous valuations. This is due in part to a lower level of EBITDA than was performed and in part to our belief that the multiples of EBITDA used in the previous periods would be unlikely given our recent sales experience in bankruptcy.
Greg?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Given the change in circumstances occurring in early April, a new impairment analysis was performed, utilizing the lower bid for the smaller company and applying the lower EBITDA number and lower estimated multiple on the larger company. This analysis determines the need for a $14.5 million total specific provision on these two credits and the other assets pledged by the borrowers. Brad?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
As CEO of our Company, I own this credit decision. Our team extended credit to these borrowers based on a long history of success in their businesses and with us as their bank. Unfortunately, circumstances changed and we did not discontinue advancing funds early enough. Fortunately, this is an isolated credit of its type and is not related to any other industry or collateral type in our portfolio. Our net charge offs for the first quarter were approximately $200,000 or less than 1 basis point without the interest charge off from this relationship. We will take questions on these credits and our overall portfolio at the end of our call.
Greg will take us through the rest of the first quarter performance.
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thanks Brad. We begin with our earnings performance and reconciliation of earnings per share back to core EPS. Stated diluted earnings per share is a loss of $0.26. Adding back merger expenses of $0.03 per share, it leaves a loss of $0.23 per share. Adding back the specific provision with associated interest write-off is approximately $0.73 per share and leaves core EPS of about $0.50 per share. We incurred approximately $0.03 per share in one-time platform expenses to convert to our new online digital banking to initiate a new debit and credit card platform and legal expense for the above-mentioned credits, This takes EPS to approximately $0.53 per share.
We also had accelerated bond premium amortization stemming from the new accounting pronouncement of about $0.03 per share, leaving EPS reconciled to $0.56 per share compared to Street consensus of $0.65 per share. The miss to Street of $0.09 is further explained by misses in loan origination fees and interest on loans of about $0.04 per share from a slower origination quarter than expected, interest expense estimated at about $0.02 per share, about $0.01 per share in non-interest income from slower mortgage banking activities, which we believe will recover in the balance of 2019 based on our pipeline and about $0.02 per share in other non-interest expense, mostly attributable to miscellaneous overhead for the support of the new platforms and for the early onboarding of the MidFirst locations.
I'd also like to recap our net interest margin for the quarter.
Our stated margin was 3.49%, adding back lighter origination fees of about $500,000, plus about $500,000 of hurt from our identified problem credit relationship would leave a margin of 3.60%. Finally, historical normalized bond premium memorization would have left us at 3.66%, exactly in line with Street expectations.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
As we have stated before, some quarters are slower than others for loan originations. Our first quarter was slower than expected, but our pipeline remained strong. We're not relaxing our underwriting standards or reducing the expectations of our teams. We expect solid growth in the next few quarters to get back on plan for our loan growth. Our loan coupons continue to be strong, improving another 5 basis points from the 12/31 quarter.
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
We continued to grow core deposits at an annualized rate of about 5% in Q1, not including the nearly $100 million in growth from our MidFirst three location merger in February. The deposit rate environment remains competitive, especially in the area of public funds. We continue to work hard at managing the balance of cost of funds with our desire to grow core deposits and reduce our other borrowed money.
The average balance of our Federal Home Loan Bank advances reduced by over $200 million quarter-over-quarter. This not only gives us more control over our cost of funds, but also converts borrowings into bank customers. Overall, net interest earnings were $30.6 million, up from $27.8 million a year ago. The $30.6 million is against consensus of $32.7 million. The difference being accounted for primarily in the items previously discussed; approximately $500,000 in loss to interest on the bank credit, $700,000 in loan origination fees and over $550,000 in bond premium amortization.
Moving on, non-interest income was $5.3 million for the quarter, below consensus by about $300,000 accounted for and lower mortgage banking fees, which we believe will recover in the last three quarters of 2019. Indications are the slow quarter was primarily weather related. Non-interest expense was $24.9 million without merger expense and $1.1 million above consensus, principally attributed to the expenses noted previously on the call. Platform expenses of over $600,000, legal fees of about $125,000 and the costs of bringing the MidFirst locations on earlier than anticipated. Income taxes were modestly lower in the first quarter at about 22% and generally in line with expectations.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Our overall balance sheet remains healthy and our teams continue to press on to achieve our goals for 2019. As we said earlier, with the exception of this single credit relationship, our credit quality is improving and funding continues to shift to core deposits away from other borrowed money. Our capital remains healthy and as you may have read, we have announced a buyback of up to 1.1 million of our shares or about 7% of the outstanding shares over the next 18 months beginning next Monday. This is subject to no objection from the Federal Reserve Bank.
As previously mentioned, our teams closed and converted three MidFirst locations in Oklahoma for the merger we announced last fall. We also converted our entire customer base onto a new digital platform known as Q2. In addition, we continue to entertain merger possibilities with interested banks in our geography. Our new trust and wealth management platform and soon to be additional card services should enhance our non-interest income part of our Bank's revenue stream in the future. We understand this is not a typical quarter for Equity Bank and the entire team and I will be working to responsibly protect shareholder value the way we always have.
At this time, we will entertain questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Michael Perito with KBW. Your line is now open.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Hey good morning guys. Thanks for taking my questions.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Michael.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
I had -- I want to start on the credit side. So I guess -- can you just give us a little bit more color on where you kind of expect this to go over the next quarter or two and what we can expect to see on the financial side as that plays out.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I'll answer the question on where it should go and I'll have -- I'll turn over to Greg on how to close through the financials. So Michael, they're currently in bankruptcy. We've currently got one company we think that will be liquidated this month. We will be, hopefully, liquidating the other company in the next quarter or two. They have -- we marketed the company that was not profitable first. The second company is actually cash flowing quite well and so we didn't focus our energies on that, but now that the first company is liquidated, we will be able to focus our energies on getting that company marketed and moving it through the sales process. They've currently got their two -- are there three vacation -- are there -- they have two second homes and one primary residence. They have those all three listed for sale. And we've been getting updates on showing. So we hopefully will get those under contract this quarter and get them sold within a reasonable time frame.
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
And Michael, the financial impact really is in three potential areas. The first one is, opportunity cost on these loans in the aggregate. Our quarterly lack of interest from non-accrual is about $600,000. So the sooner we take care of the resolution, the faster we can put those assets back to work. The second is in the direct costs of dealing with the issue. I think a lot of that is in the rear view mirror because we now have the plan put in place, but there will continue to be a small amount of legal and administrative expense that goes with it. And then, of course, the third one is -- is the -- the possibility although we don't think this will happen, the possibility of continued provision against these assets. We think we put the mark on appropriately given the data points that we had. So, we do not believe that we will continue to have more provision, but that remains a possibility.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Could we spend a minute on that? So you provided $14.5 million against this $28 million total relationship. Is that the right way to think about it?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
The total relationship is $28 million on commercial credits. There's roughly a little over $12 million on personal relationships as well.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
So -- so, it's closer to $40 million, all in?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Correct.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
And right now that $40 million just has a $14.5 million allowance against it?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Correct. The primary residence are well secured and we -- we have taken this to a place, Michael, where we don't think we'll have to talk about this in previous and future quarters from a resolution standpoint.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
So the expectation would be, if you exit both companies and the three properties at -- at a price point that you -- you guys have triangulated to whatever recent market activity that there should be no further provision or charge-off required around this total relationship?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
That's correct.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. And this $40 million, how does that rate among some of the larger overall borrowing relationships on your balance sheet?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, so we don't -- I mean these are separate credits in that single family residences aren't aggregated. I mean we do aggregate them when we look at the credit relationship, but from an individual risk standpoint, one of these credits is currently current; one of these credits is currently not past due enough to make it a non-accrual loan. So, the personal residences, the primary residences, I would separate from that. These were two separate individual operating companies. And the reason we aggregate them now as we, a year ago got them to cross collateralize those relationships, along with their personal residence. So, we aggregated them together at that point.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
All right. So maybe asking the question differently. I mean what are the largest commercial relationships all-in on your books today and how does the $28 million value compare?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
It would be the largest relationship we have.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. And just to give us a sense. I mean what are -- where does it go to after that in terms of on average in the top five? I mean does it go from $28 million to $20 million or there's several on the $20 plus million range? Any color? That would be helpful.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So the large company had 20 -- less than $20 million at $19.5 million loan against it. We don't have relationships over $20 million.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We do have several relationships -- we do have several relationships that are $20 million. I think our legal lending limit is $78 million. And so, we're about 25% of our legal lending limit. That's our internal limit.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
And both these companies, the $19.2 million and the $9 million company were both in the franchise business, correct? Was that?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
They are in the franchise --
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
If you can, give us maybe a little bit more broader color. I'm sure you want to try specific names versus quick service, fast food type stuff or could you give us any more detail there?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. They were in the franchisor business, not the franchisee business. And one of them is in the entertainment business and one of them is in the bakery business.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. And can you remind us about the -- whether it's franchisee or franchisor, what the total exposure on the franchise lending is today on your balance sheet?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We don't currently have any franchisor relationships outside of these two.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. And franchise -- just broader just total franchise lending?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Total franchise -- franchisee lending in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 13 different concepts, we have $94 million.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you guys. I appreciate that color. And then just one last one from me. I mean if you think about obviously the first quarter was a little disappointing for you guys and if we go back in the early part of '18 post tax reform, you guys were doing about a 1.20% ROA. It stepped down a little over the last three quarters. Even if we kind of normalize provision here and I'm just curious as you kind of look forward, what can get that moving again in the right direction? Is it just simply normalizing NIM and growth? Is there more that can be done on the efficiency side and in terms of managing expenses as you kind of have some purchase accounting run-off. I mean, how are you guys thinking about that dynamic as we move forward?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
That's a great question, Michael. The first thing that we've done, which I think has the potential to be very impactful is, we have reduced our other borrowed money from a high of $600 million a year ago to less than $200 million today and typically about $150 million on balance sheet at any given point in time right now. What that does is, it converted that debt that we were paying to Federal Home Loan Bank to customers that we get to cross-sell number one and number two, it puts us back in control of those dollars from a rate standpoint. We can influence rates where before we were paying whatever Federal Home Loan Bank dictated. So that's a big change for us and a big opportunity as we think about moving down the road on both retail and public funds deposits.
The second thing that we've done in 2019 is, we have begun to look hard at revenue generation from sources that we did not have before. We've talked in the past about trust in wealth management. That platform has been developed in the last 90 days. We have very talented people and very talented support staff in place to begin selling trust and wealth management in the second quarter. So, we have expectations of growing that platform and increasing non-interest income.
The other thing that we've done Michael, there's no -- there's no question that M&A activity has slowed down. So, we've taken the resources that we have in house that perhaps might have been more focused on M&A, and we've begun to look at how we now can take the Bank that Brad and the team have built in the last -- since we went public in the last three years, we'll say and make it run better. So, we're looking at all different expense categories and all different revenue categories for improvement and putting those parts and pieces into action.
And it includes all things large and small and so the way we get our ROA back up is to continue to work hard at controlling the parts of margin that we can and we've done that on the loan side. We've increased coupon from our loan customers substantially in the last six quarters. We continue to look at ways to reduce our funding costs and -- and tear apart the non-interest income and non-interest expense.
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
All right. Great. Thank you for all the color, guys. Appreciate it.
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Michael.
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And your next question will come from the line of Terry McEvoy with Stephens. Your line is now open.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Good morning.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Terry.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Just looking at some press reports from January in one of the publications that said a payment hadn't been made on one of these loans for six months and I'm guessing it's the smaller commercial loan. Guess I'm just curious why if that was the case we didn't hear about this relationship until today.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I think you're referencing an article that was written by an attorney who doesn't -- who does not have the facts. I mean we did not provide him that information. None of the loans were -- all the loans were current as of December 31, Terry.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Thanks for clearing that up. And the franchise portfolio, the 13 concepts and the $94 million. Would these two credits be included in that or had you been included in that portfolio in the past?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We did not include them in that portfolio because they're not a franchise concept, they're a franchisor. And they don't own any or operate any stores. So they're not included in that aggregation and our franchisor operates a lot differently than a franchisee. A franchisee is operating a business and a franchisor is dictating how business is operated. And so they're completely separate. And the large company in this situation is actually cash flowing rather well and as always cash flowed rather well. It's actually the debt of the smaller company that has dragged the relationship down.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
And if we took this total relationship and just put it in a box, it would appear that the underlying credit trends on the rest of the portfolio were stable to improving. I wonder if you could just confirm that maybe put some data behind that.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Greg, you want to take that question?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Sure. We did a comparison and did exactly that. We pulled this relationship out of the 3/31 numbers and the 12/31 numbers and all of the major credit metrics improved slightly in the first quarter. So delinquency was a little better, non-accruals were better, NPAs were better and our classified assets were better. So there is continued improvement in the underlying portfolio.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Great. Thank you. And then, I guess, Greg just one last question for you. Thanks for running through the margin dynamics. That additional callable bond premium amortization, it sounded like that was unexpected and three months ago, maybe not built into your forecasts, if you could confirm that. And then what are your thoughts now going forward on the margin? I don't think you ran through that in your prepared remarks.
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. You are correct on the first comment and we expect that to taper off over time, but probably not in 2019, the bond premium amortization, I'm talking about. And then that gives -- that leaves guidance on a normalized basis of 3.60% on the margin, but with the opportunity cost of this particular credit, we're talking about, I think a new normalized margin for us until that credit is resolved to somewhere between 3.50% and 3.55%.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question will come from Jeff Rulis with D.A. Davidson. Your line is now open.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Good morning.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Jeff.
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Jeff.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
On the expense run rate, you talked about these platform investments and some other kind of legal and other. I guess that $25.5 million this quarter, where could we assume that and maybe there's a tail on some of the legal front, but could you kind of range bound what you think non-interest expense could look like in coming quarters?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. You bet. Jeff. Like we said, we made some investment in platform depending upon the tale of the administrative cost of this credit, the guidance that we give for non-interest expense would be somewhere between $24.0 million and $24.3 million for Q2 and I would expect that given what we know today that number to be fairly constant in Qs three and four.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Okay. So we step anywhere from a little over $1 million down from this quarter and in hopes it kind of carry that through the balance of the year?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Correct.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Got it. And then the -- loan growth outlook for the full year you've mentioned, starting the year off slower than you had expected, but have you put a number out there on 2019 full year growth?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
We have not put a number out there for full year growth. We always anticipate somewhere between -- recently between 8% and 10%. I don't know that we'll get fully back to that 8% or 10%, but guidance today I think can still be in the 6% to 8% range.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Great. And then on the -- I guess that provisioning level, I suppose we revert back to maybe 2018 averages, you were about $1 million a quarter. Is that -- would that be reasonable to assume?
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
That is correct. I actually think Jeff that we're forecasting $1.1 million.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
And then, I guess, just a question back to the credit. I guess would you have sort of guess and maybe a little too early, but any possibilities for recoveries here? Do you think that the marks are conservative based on maybe somewhat moving some of these businesses, you hope a potential out there for also possible recoveries?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So what we did Jeff was we had to look at it as a point in time, if we sell this as fast as we can sell it, we think we have it marked appropriately. If we are able to get them to use an investment banker and liquidate this in a fashion that we think is more reasonable, we could do better than this. But at this point in time, we do not have that agreement with them and so we think we have it appropriately marked. We -- this relationship was sold for substantially more enough to clear out both of our relationships in December. The buyer would not close on that or the seller would not close on that. And so, if we can get them to reasonably look at this and how to market this company, there is the potential to do better than the loss that we currently have reserved against it.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Okay. And then just the last one I have is just to clarify that the total credit relationship with this borrower is $42 million. Is that correct? Their business credits and their personal real estate.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Right. And it's not actually -- it's actually separate, -- there is actually separate guarantors and separate individual borrowers on the individual houses as well. So it's not one single owner of the business. So it's actually multiple owners of the business and multiple loans to individuals on their residences.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
So the -- I'm just trying to parse it out the -- I guess the $33 million that was placed on non-accrual, could you break out -- what is the piece that is currently accruing? Is that what the $9 million business? Is that what's still --
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
No.
Craig Anderson -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
No.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
None of the businesses are accruing and so personal residences.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Personal residence is the piece, it's not on our accrual?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Correct.
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question will come from the line of Andrew Liesch with Sandler O'Neill. Your line is now open.
Andrew Liesch -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Hey, guys. You've covered most my questions. So on the -- on the buyback though on capital, I mean your TCE ratio is 7.5% right now and buying back 7% of the stock on a pro forma basis would -- would bring it below 7%. Curious how did you arrive at this 1.1 million share number and how active do you intend to be with this? Just seems like it's -- it would've been larger than I would've expected of any buyback?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So Andrew, we think that acceptable ranges for stock buybacks are in the 3% to 7% range and we had been working on our stock buyback by the way before this credit issue had a residence. So they really are separate and distinct from each other and to be clear. So, when we perform the analysis for the stock repurchase, we look at that over an 18-month period and we show on our pro formas by example that we would be stand-alone at the end of the 18 months at 8.67% without the stock buyback on -- on normal earnings and a little -- right at 8% on a pro forma basis. So, when you look at it over a period of time, with the accumulation of retained earnings from earnings, it does not put stress on capital.
Andrew Liesch -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Got you. And then what -- right now you guys done to prepare for CECL coming in next year? And how would that affect your preliminary expectations for capital levels and provisioning? What -- what can you provide there?
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So, we've -- we're still in the modeling phase. We're getting ready to wrap up the modeling phase and we're not prepared at this point to give guidance on its impact, but we are working diligently to finish up our internal modeling and there'll be more to come on that.
Andrew Liesch -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks that -- that covers my questions.
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Andrew.
Operator
Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions at this time. So now I will hand the conference back over to Jacob Willis for any closing comments or remarks.
Jacob Willis -- Investor Relations Officer
Thank you for joining our Equity Bancshares first quarter 2019 earnings call. Have a great day.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation on today's conference. This does conclude our program and we may all disconnect. Everybody have a wonderful day.
Duration: 39 minutes
Call participants:
Jacob Willis -- Investor Relations Officer
Brad Elliott -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Craig Anderson -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Greg Kossover -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Michael Perito -- KBW -- Analyst
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Jeff Rulis -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Andrew Liesch -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Transcript powered by AlphaStreet
This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.
