The holding company of First Farmers & Merchants Bank, First Farmers & Merchants Corp. (OTC:FFMH), was one of the companies to come on the news wires yesterday after it announced its financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2024. The company reported net income of $3.4 million for the quarter, which reflected a drop of 14.8% from the $4 million that had been reported in the prior year quarter. Additionally, the net income per share stood at $0.82, which worked out to a decline of 12.6% from $0.94 in the prior-year period.
Additionally, the net income also dropped 6.5% in comparison to the $3.7 million that had been posted in the previous quarter. The total loans went down by $1 million from the fourth quarter of 2023, but on a year-over-year basis, they went up by 4.7%, or $46 million. The net interest income generated by the company during the quarter was $10.6 million, which reflected a drop of 13.1% from the $12.2 million in net interest income in the prior year quarter. However, it worked out to a rise of 5.7% from the $10 million that had been posted in the fourth quarter of 2023.
First Farmers & Merchants Corp. also announced that the provision for credit expenses had hit $65,000 for the quarter as opposed to $0 in provisions for the same in the prior year quarter. However, the entirety of non-performing assets dropped by 32.84% on a year-on-year basis to $945,000. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Farmers & Merchants Corp., Brian K. Williams, spoke about the company’s performance yesterday. He noted that 2023 had been a particularly difficult year for the banking sector. However, the bank had managed to take certain measures in order to protect its deposit base and improve long-term earnings.
 Stock Gains Momentum: But Why?){kind=link}