First Community Corporation announces annual and fourth quarter results and increased cash dividend

Highlights

• Net income of $ 6.1 million in 2015, a 19.6% increase over 2014 earnings
• Diluted EPS of $0.91 per common share in 2015, compared to $0.78 in 2014, an increase of 16.7%
• Increase in cash dividend to $0.08 per common share, the 56th consecutive quarter of cash dividends paid to common shareholders
• Total shareholder return of 35% in 2015, as compared to the NASDAQ Bank Index growth of 6.6%
• Total revenue growth of $2.276 million, a 7.1% increase to $34.2 million in total revenue in 2015
• Strong loan growth of $45.3 million in 2015, an increase of 10.2%
• Pure deposit growth (including customer cash management accounts) of $62.2 million during the year, an 11.9% increase.
• Key credit quality metrics were excellent with net charge-offs of 0.14% during the year and non-performing assets of 0.85% at year end.
• Regulatory capital ratios of 10.19% (Tier 1 Leverage) and 16.21% (Total Capital) along with Tangible Common Equity / Tangible Assets (TCE/TA) ratio of 8.47%

Today, First Community Corporation (Nasdaq: FCCO), the holding company for First Community Bank, reported net income available to common shareholders for the fourth quarter and year end of 2015. For the year ended December 31, 2015 net income available to common shareholders was $6.1 million compared to $5.1 million during year ended December 31, 2014. Diluted earnings per share for 2015 were $0.91 an increase over $0.78 in 2014. Net income available to common shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $1.60 million, compared to $1.51 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. Diluted earnings per common share were $0.24 for the fourth quarter of 2015 as compared to $0.22 for the fourth quarter of 2014.

First Community President and CEO Michael Crapps commented, “We are pleased with our company’s financial results during 2015 led by strong organic growth in both loans and pure deposits. This is built on top of the transformational year of 2014, which included both acquisitions and a denovo banking office.”