Heritage Financial in Olympia, Wash., reported lower earnings that reflected securities sales and an expense-cutting effort.
The $7.2 billion-asset company said in a press release that its fourth-quarter profit fell by 72% from a year earlier, to $6.2 million.
The company sold $151.8 million of securities at a $10 million pretax loss, using the proceeds to buy $140.7 million of higher-yielding securities. The remaining proceeds were invested in interest-earning deposits.
Those moves should improve annualized interest income by $5.3 million.
Heritage also incurred $2 million of expenses tied to contract renewal negotiations, contract cancellations and severance payments. The company noted that it has also incurred $1.2 million of severance costs in the current quarter.
The cost-cutting moves should create $5.3 million of annualized expense savings.