Participants

Charlotte Rasche; Executive Vice President, General Counsel; Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Bank; Prosperity Bancshares Inc

David Zalman; Senior Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer of the Company and Bank; Prosperity Bancshares Inc

Asylbek Osmonov; Chief Financial Officer of the Company and the Bank; Prosperity Bancshares Inc

H. Timanus; Chairman of the Board; Chief Operating Officer of the Bank; Prosperity Bancshares Inc

Kevin Hanigan; President, Chief Operating Officer, Director; Prosperity Bancshares Inc

Manan Gosalia; Analyst; Morgan Stanley

Katherine Mueller; Analyst; KBW

Michael Rose; Analyst; Raymond James

Peter Winter; Analyst; DA Davidson

Jon Arfstrom; Analyst; RBC Capital Markets

Ebrahim Poonawala; Analyst; BofA Securities

Presentation

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Prosperity Bancshares first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Charlotte Rasche. Please go ahead.

Charlotte Rasche

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Prosperity Bancshares' first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. This call is being broadcast live on our website and will be available for replay for the next few weeks.
I'm Charlotte Rasche, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Prosperity Bancshares. And here with me today is David Zalman, Senior Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; H.E. Tim Timanus Jr., Chairman; Asylbek Osmonov, Chief Financial Officer; Eddie Safady, Vice Chairman; Kevin Hanigan, President and Chief Operating Officer; Randy Hester, Chief Lending Officer; Mays Davenport, Director of Corporate Strategy; and Bob Dowdell, Executive Vice President.
David Zalman will lead off with a review of the highlights for the recent quarter. He will be followed by Asylbek Osmonov, who will review some of our financial statistics, and Tim Timanus, who will discuss our lending activities, including asset quality. Finally, we will open the call for questions.
Before we begin, let me make the usual disclaimers. Certain of the matters discussed in this presentation may constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the federal securities laws, and as such, may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results or performance of Prosperity Bancshares to be materially different from future results or performance expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to be materially different than those in the forward-looking statements can be found in Prosperity Bancshares' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Forms 10-Q and 10-K and other reports and statements we have filed with the SEC. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements.
Now let me turn the call over to David Zalman.

David Zalman

Thank you, Charlotte. I would like to welcome and thank everyone listening to our first quarter 2025 conference call. We and others believe that Prosperity is doing the right thing. Prosperity has been ranked as one of Forbes' Best Banks since the list inception in 2010 and was ranked in the top 10 for 14 consecutive years. Additionally, Prosperity was named the Best Overall Bank in Texas by Money for 2024 to 2025 and was ranked among America's Best Regional Banks by Newsweek in 2025.
Prosperity continues to focus on long-term relationships and our customer success while maintaining strong asset quality, solid earnings and a fair return to shareholders. Prosperity maintained a high tangible equity to tangible asset ratio of 11.2% with tangible equity of $3.9 billion. Our net income was $130 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared with $110 million for the same period in 2024, an increase of $19.8 million, or 17.9%.
The net income per diluted common share was $1.37 for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared with $1.18 for the same period in 2024, an increase of 16.1%. For the three months ended March 31, 2025, annualized return on average assets and average tangible common equity were 1.34% on average assets and 13.23% on average tangible common equity, respectively, and the efficiency ratio was 45.7%. These ratios all showed considerable improvement compared with the same period in 2024.
Loans were $21.9 billion at March 31, 2025, an increase of $712 million or 3.3% compared with $21.2 billion at March 31, 2024, primarily due to the merger of Lone Star State Bancshares. As of March 31, 2025, loans excluding Warehouse Purchase Program loans and loans acquired in the Lone Star merger decreased $67.6 million compared with December 31, 2024. The bank continues to reduce identified loans assumed in recent acquisitions in the amount of $434 million in 2024 and $115 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Our deposits were $28 billion at March 31, 2025, an increase of $851 million or 3.1% compared with $27 billion at March 31, 2024, primarily due to the merger. Linked-quarter deposits decreased $354 million from $28.3 billion at December 31, 2024. The decrease in deposits was primarily due to seasonality. As previously mentioned, we have over 500 municipal customers, such as cities, schools and counties that use the tax dollars they receive in December and January throughout the year.
Prosperity has strong noninterest-bearing deposits of 34.5% of total deposits as of March 31, 2025 with a cost of funds of 1.66% and a cost of deposits of 1.38%. The net interest margin on a tax equivalent basis was 3.14% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared with 2.79% for the same period in 2024 and 3.05% for the three months ending December 31, 2024.
Based on our models, we believe our net interest margin should continue to improve to a more normalized level as our bond portfolio and loan portfolio reprice. Our nonperforming assets totaled $81.4 million or 24 basis points of quarterly average interest-earning assets at March 31, 2025 compared with $83 million or 24 basis points of quarterly average interest-earning assets as of March 31, 2024, and again, $81.5 million or 23 basis points of quarterly average interest-earning assets at December 31, 2024.
The allowance for credit losses on loans and off-balance sheet credit exposure was $386 million at March 31, 2025 compared with $366 million at March 31, 2024. Our current nonperforming assets are higher than our historical levels mainly due to acquired loans and accounting regulations for such loans that mandate we maintain loan balances on our books until they are resolved despite being reserved for during acquisition.
Texas and Oklahoma continue to benefit from strong economies and are home to 58 Fortune 500 headquartered companies. The Texas economy continues to expand. Employment growth was solid, and sales tax revenue increased broadly, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Texas economic indicators published April 3, 2025.
The March 2025 Texas business outlook surveys showed continued expansion in wages and benefits all across all sectors. Despite the uncertainty with tariffs, our teams in Texas and Oklahoma are optimistic based on conversations with our customers about their outlook and plans. We continue to be opportunistic, work hard to stay close to our customers and their needs and maintain a quality loan portfolio.
Although there is market volatility, we continue to have active conversations with other bankers regarding potential acquisition opportunities and remain ready to enter into a transaction when it is right for all parties and is appropriately accretive to our existing shareholders.
Overall, I want to thank all the associates for helping create the success we have had. We have a strong team and a deep bench at Prosperity, and we'll continue to work hard to help our customers and associates succeed and to increase shareholder value.
Thanks again for your support of our company. Let me turn over the discussion to Asylbek Osmonov, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss some of the specific financial results we achieved. Asylbek?

Asylbek Osmonov

Thank you, Mr. Zalman. Good morning, everyone. Net interest income before provision for credit losses for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $265.4 million, an increase of $27.1 million compared to $238.2 million for the same period in 2024 and a decrease of $2.4 million compared to $267.8 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2024. The linked quarter decrease was primarily due to having two less days in the first quarter of 2025.
The fair value loan income for the first quarter of 2025 was $3.3 million compared to $3.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. For the second quarter of 2025, the fair value loan income is expected to be in the range of $2 million to $3 million. The net interest margin on a tax equivalent basis was 3.14% for the three months ended March 31, 2025, an increase of 35 basis points compared to 2.79% for the same period in 2024, an increase of 9 basis points compared to 3.05% for the quarter ended December 31, 2024.
Excluding purchase accounting adjustments, the net interest margin for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was 3.1% compared to 2.76% for the same period in 2024 and 3.0% for the quarter ended December 31, 2024.
Noninterest income was $41.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to $39.8 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 and $38.9 million for the same period in 2024. Noninterest expense for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $140.3 million compared to $141.5 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 and $135.8 million for the same period in 2024.
For the second quarter of 2025, we expect noninterest expense to be in the range of $141 million to $144 million. The efficiency ratio was 45.7% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to 46.1% for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 and 49.1% for the same period in 2024. The bond portfolio metrics at [3/31/2025] have a modified duration of 3.9 and projected annual cash flows of approximately $1.9 billion.
And with that, let me turn over the presentation to Tim Timanus for some details on loan and asset quality.

H. Timanus

Thank you, Asylbek. Nonperforming assets at quarter end March 31, 2025 totaled $81,419,000 or 37 basis points of loans and other real estate compared to $81,541,000 or 37 basis points at December 31, 2024. This is basically flat with some nonperforming assets coming off and others coming on. Since March 31, 2025, $89,000 -- excuse me, $895,162 of nonperforming assets have been removed or put under contract for sale. The March 31, 2025 nonperforming asset total was comprised of $73,378,000 in loans, $29,000 in repossessed assets and $8,012,000 in other real estate.
Net charge-offs for the three months ended March 31, 2025 were $2,704,000 compared to net charge-offs of $2,592,000 for the quarter ended December 31, 2024. This is an increase of $112,000 on a linked-quarter basis. There was no addition to the allowance for credit losses during the quarter ended March 31, 2025. No dollars were taken into income from the allowance during the quarter ended March 31, 2025.
The average monthly new loan production for the quarter ended March 31, 2025 was $317 million compared to $333 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 and $295 million for the full year 2024. Loans outstanding at March 31, 2025 were approximately $21.978 billion compared to $22.149 billion at December 31, 2024. The March 31, 2025 loan total is made up of 38% fixed-rate loans, 32% floating rate loans and 30% variable rate loans.
I'll now turn it over to Charlotte Rasche.

Charlotte Rasche

Thank you, Tim. At this time, we are prepared to answer your questions. Our call operator will assist us with questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Manan Gosalia, Morgan Stanley.

Manan Gosalia

Good morning, all. Can you give us some more color on what you're seeing on the loan growth side? I know you noted $115 million of deliberate reduction in acquired loans this quarter. But I guess even when you adjust for that, loans were fairly flat.
So can you talk about what you're seeing there and maybe your updated expectations for loan growth in 2025? I think you'd previously spoken about somewhere in the low to mid-single-digit range. Is that still in line with how you're thinking about it?

David Zalman

Kevin, do you want to start off on that question?

Kevin Hanigan

Sure. Thanks, David. Yes, I think we're still in the camp of low single digits for the year. As David mentioned and as you mentioned, in the last five quarters, we've had $549 million worth of runoff between the Lone Star and the FirstCapital acquisitions. That runoff is about completed.
I can think of maybe one other small deal that may run off out of the books, and it's not big enough to even talk about. But I think that's about completed. And unlike the last -- at least three quarters when we were on this call, three -- or three weeks in the quarters, loans were down anywhere from $25 million to $90 million within the first three weeks of the quarter.
Loans are actually up modestly in the first three weeks of this quarter. And I do know, if I just look at the pipelines, we've got some loans, nonconstruction-related loans that are term loans fully funded kind of term loans in our pipeline.
So we may squeak out a little bit of growth this quarter. And then we're optimistic as we look later into the year despite the tariffs and some other things as we sit down with our bankers across the footprint. So we're going to keep our guidance where it's been.

David Zalman

Yes. I'd add, too, that we usually have a quarterly management meeting which our Chairman and President come from all different parts of the states of Texas and Oklahoma and the -- between Dallas, Houston, West Texas, on and on, Oklahoma. And I asked that exact question. I said the loans -- the total loan dollars were down. But at the end of the meeting, I always ask what their -- are they optimistic or pessimistic.
And 100% of all of our Chairman and Presidents across all of our different areas responded by saying they're still very optimistic and their customers are still optimistic. Still holding back a little bit because not knowing what to do, but they all seem to be extremely optimistic.
Tim, do you want to add to that?

H. Timanus

I think that's accurate. I would describe it as being a little bit sluggish right now. The flow of loans that we've been able to look at has been good. Our loan committee meetings have been active. We've had good loans to take a look at. Some of those, I'm sure, will move forward and end up being funded.
But with all that's going on in the marketplace for a couple of weeks now, I think it's been a little sluggish. I think some borrowers are just maybe waiting another week to see what happens. We're not aware of any projects that have actually been taken off the map. They're all still scheduled to move forward. So I think it's a matter of just letting some of these things settle out.

David Zalman

I think it's still -- and the good part is I think the customers are still pretty optimistic. Again, they're just uncertain where things are going. They're still making money and they still see their position improving over time, especially with the regulatory environment like it is. But again, as you say, it's still sluggish because of not knowing where everything is.

H. Timanus

Yes. But people contacting us and asking about loans and telling us what they would like to do, that continues unabated. So I think there's reason to believe that all this will break loose a bit here fairly soon and move forward in a normal way.

Kevin Hanigan

Yes. And since it's an important topic with the tariffs and everything else, and we've listened to other calls or looked at other transcripts and folks saying it could be bumpy for growth with tariffs if we don't get things resolved. The flip side of that is also -- if that is, in fact, the case, my expectation is that payoffs that would normally occur could get slowed down as well. Projects that might get sold into a different market or have been built out and somebody is going to flip it. I think that will slow down as well if the tariffs become an issue.

H. Timanus

That would be normal. I think you're right.

Manan Gosalia

That's really helpful color. If we think about the balance sheet, I think you have a couple of quarters where the balance sheet has gone down. To give you the opportunity to pay down some of the high-cost borrowings. Should we expect that that to continue to be here for the next quarter or two?

David Zalman

We couldn't really understand anything that you said, Manan. It was kind of cutting in or out, I'm sorry. I don't know if it's on our end or your end.

Manan Gosalia

Sorry, can you hear me now?

David Zalman

Better.

Manan Gosalia

Okay. I was asking about the balance sheet here. We've had a couple of quarters where the balance sheet has been shrinking. And I think you've taken the opportunity to pay down borrowings when loan growth has been weak. To the extent that loan growth remains sluggish over the next couple of quarters, should we continue seeing the balance sheet moving lower?

David Zalman

We're -- again, the balance sheet, we borrowed when COVID happened and a lot of deposits went out of the bank, I think. What did we borrow, up to what, $3.9 million -- $3.9 billion? We've reduced that now to about $2.7 billion. We don't see it reducing a lot more. If you look -- historically, our normalized times, we've always leveraged the bank by a couple of billion dollars, plus a little bit because of the -- because again, we have so much liquidity coming from the bond portfolio. And so I think that -- I think you're pretty much going to see I think we might reduce it maybe $200 million, but that's probably about it.

Asylbek Osmonov

Yes. And depending also, as we discussed on the loan growth and probably the deposits, so if opportunity presents, we'll continue to pay down the borrowings. And also, we'll start doing a little bit buying securities that's yielding 5.25% or so, 5.5%. So we'll just see the market is doing and determine how much lower we want to bring our borrowing.

David Zalman

But historically, the bottom line is we've always leveraged the bank a couple of billion dollars and probably, you should still see that. So I would say the answer to your question is, yes, I think we're pretty much there.

Manan Gosalia

That's very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Katherine Mueller, KBW.

Katherine Mueller

Thanks. Good morning. I know that M&A and really M&A and improved growth, but really, M&A is a focus for capital deployment. But curious, your thoughts on the buyback, just given where the stock price is today?

David Zalman

Yes. Again, if we could have been buying shares back through this recent downside when we started hitting around the $64 and stuff, we would have definitely been in the market. But again, we couldn't because of the earnings announcement, but we would have been buying back, no question.

Katherine Mueller

And even [Amanda], we've had a little bit of a rebound since then. So even in the high 60s. Is that a place where you would be active or would you wait for another pullback?

David Zalman

Right now, again, we're still saving our money, I'd say, for -- we really do want to do some M&A, some acquisitions. We have other opportunities that we're looking at. So again, I think I would just pause to say if there is another downturn, we will be back in the stock. But again, I know it seems like we have a lot of capital, but we do have plans to use that. So -- but we will -- again, we will buy when there's another downturn into the stock price.

H. Timanus

Yes. I think it's safe to say we're watching it daily. And we'll see. We may buy back, we may not.

Katherine Mueller

Okay. Great. And then maybe just any additional comments on M&A? It feels like it's on pause, but I know you've been active in discussions. So just kind of curious if you think this is an environment where we're able to do M&A?
And if you have a preference maybe with all of the volatility for maybe more of a small deal versus a large deal? I know your range is like 2 to 20, so it's a big range, but just kind of curious, how you're thinking about that?

David Zalman

Yes. I mean, I -- again, we start off the year with everybody just being terribly excited with the regulatory environment really easing up and I think everybody got terribly excited. I think we had three calls, I think I mentioned Steven in December. I think things did pause a little bit. We are starting -- those same calls are starting to come back again right now. And so I think that -- I think you will see something. I think you will see some M&A coming forward.
Again, I think people want to do something. And again, you have all these tariffs and that kind of stuff. But for the most part, I think those people that have made the decision to do something, they might have paused, but it hasn't left their mind and they are going to do something. I suspect there may be in their minds, a limited amount of time before the next administration. So I think we will see stuff get done this year by the end of the year for sure.

Katherine Mueller

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Michael Rose, Raymond James.

Michael Rose

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I don't know if you touched on this, but I think previously, you talked about kind of a full year margin in the 3.25% to 3.30% range given some longer-term outlook in prior calls. Has any of that changed just with the rate backdrop at all in your forecast?

David Zalman

No, that's the beautiful part about our company. No matter -- if somebody wants to say that the world is not round anymore and all these ships are going to follow off of the planet, our deal is not predicated on the growth. It's predicated on repricing. And I think we're still sticking with the deal of the 2.25% to -- 3.25% to 3.30%.

Michael Rose

Okay. Perfect. And then just for Kevin, I usually ask the warehouse question. You guys did a little bit better than what you were thinking at this time last quarter, Kevin. Any thoughts just based on where rates are and what you've seen so far in the second quarter?

Kevin Hanigan

Yes, Michael, thank you. You're right. This quarter, we did -- I think we averaged $876 million, and our guidance was in the $850 million range. So it was just -- it was just slightly better than we had anticipated. Just as a catch-up, quarter-to-date, we ended last night with the average that was $876 million up to $1.088 billion average so far for the quarter, and we closed the book out last night at $1.148 billion.
So it's looking like -- typically, the second quarter is good. The third quarter is usually our best quarter, and then Q1 and Q4 tend to be weaker quarters. So we're moving into a better time. I am a little bit concerned with where the rate environment is. So I think conservatively, I'd say $1.50 billion to $1.1 billion for this quarter.
Just other color, Michael, we have -- we actually got two new clients, one we boarded and started funding loans on for this month. It's a $75 million commitment that's been funding up. The other new client we have is a $40 million client that hasn't started funding up yet. I think they'll probably start funding up in the next several weeks. So those are going to be slightly helpful to whatever we've got going on, and then as we look into next quarter, we're not that far out yet, but we've got a client that's got itself for sale. And I think they'll sell that business and will have some impact on the third quarter, but we'll talk about that in July.

Michael Rose

Very helpful. And if I could just squeeze one last one in. It looked like there was a bigger step down in NSF and debit card income that I might have expected, understanding that fourth quarter was pretty strong in NSF. Anything to read into that at all or just activity levels? Or just any color would be helpful.

Asylbek Osmonov

So Michael, I think this is just a seasonality. If you look at -- back in Q1 is a slower quarter for us from that standpoint. So it wasn't anything unusual. It's just a seasonality of first quarter.

Michael Rose

All right, thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Peter Winter, D.A. Davidson.

Peter Winter

Thanks. You guys obviously have a very strong deposit franchise. You've done a great job mentioning the deposit costs when rates were moving higher. But the question is, if the Fed were to stop lowering rates, is there much room for you to further lower deposit costs? Because it's -- you're already at the -- near the low end of peers at 2.08%.

David Zalman

I'm sorry, I didn't hear the last part, Peter. You said if the Fed stops lowering rates, what was the question?

Peter Winter

Is there still room to lower your deposit costs?

David Zalman

I would say yes. Again, we didn't go up as much as everybody else. I mean, we're -- I think our total cost of funds -- our total cost of deposits is like 1.38%. So about -- sometimes 100 percentage basis points unless some of our peer group. But we would like to keep -- a lot of times, we reward our customers when rates come down. And we still try to keep them.
But I think it depends on the timing of that. And so if the repricing is -- if we get enough repricing in the bond portfolio and the loan portfolio, we probably won't be as aggressive as bringing down rates. If they came -- they start lowering rates really quick, we would have to be a little bit more aggressive. I don't know if that's a good answer or not.

Asylbek Osmonov

Yes. I'll just -- Peter, I'll give you a little bit of additional information on that. When we had a 100 basis points cut since end of last year to -- we did not increase significantly, our deposit rates. What we did cut is our special CDs that we pretty much cut one to one on the special CDs. And there were some customer, we gave them exception rates, so we cut those exception rates.
But overall, if you're looking bigger base, our customer, we did not decrease the rates. If you look at interest bearing demand deposits, we have 70 basis points. We were in Q4 and Q1 and even same rate on the Q1 of last year. So I think there's opportunity to cut some of those rates if that come -- cut the rate. So we haven't touched those. So overall --.

David Zalman

Probably because it's been slower than everybody anticipated with the rate cuts. We've really not had to cut our rates, and we've still done better because of the repricing, that analogy.

Asylbek Osmonov

That's right. So there's opportunity to cut in.

David Zalman

So the real question is, will the Fed lower rates? Will they lower on 1 times, 2 times or 3 times or will they lower them at all? That's the whole question. We actually -- if they didn't lower them any at all for the rest of the year, it would be better for us. If they lower them even 3 times, we would still hit the net interest margin that we've described to you earlier.

Peter Winter

Got it. Got it. That's really helpful. And then just on credit, it's obviously excellent. Reserve coverage to nonperforming assets, very strong, over 4 times. But with a more uncertain economic environment, do you still expect to take a zero provision throughout the year?

David Zalman

Well, we have about $81 million in nonperforming and $386 million or something like that in reserve. So I think that we're in a good position we have to do these testing, all the time to tell if they're adequate or not adequate. We've always been able to keep a little bit more because -- just because of times like this, because of what's going on, and we can justify having the extra money in the account, I think. Right now, do you want to comment on that?

Asylbek Osmonov

Yes. And I'll add that when we calculate or estimate our provision, we have a baseline and we layer on the recessionary scenario. So our model already anticipate some recessionary scenario in it, where we stress certain variables on our loans. So with that anticipation in the model, I think even the economy goes a little bit worse than we are right now, I think we're covered there.

David Zalman

So what do we have, about $100 million for the recessionary part of it?

Asylbek Osmonov

Around there, yes.

David Zalman

Close to that. Yes. So I mean, we're already -- again, we're already reserved for a recession, if that happens.

Asylbek Osmonov

Yes. So from that standpoint, to answer specifically, unless the economy really get worse than we are, then I don't think we'll be putting much of a reserve in the near future.

David Zalman

And actually, the reserve, if you look at it, if you look at it March 2024 compared to 2025, you have about $20 million more in the reserve than you did back in '24.

Peter Winter

Great. Thanks a lot. Very helpful.

Operator

Jon Arfstrom with RBC Capital.

Jon Arfstrom

All right. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Asylbek, maybe for you. Give us a profile of what you're buying in the securities portfolio, kind of yield type duration? And then remind us of the $1.9 billion that -- what that's rolling off at?

Asylbek Osmonov

Yes. I mean, we're not buying a lot when I say we're not doing one to one. So we still have cash flow coming in. What's rolling off is our -- we have MBS, 15-year MBS that's rolling off, and that's what we're essentially buying, just replacing those. I think on the -- depending on the day when we buy, I think we're buying yield around 5.25%, 5.50%. That's what we're replacing.

David Zalman

You replaced the 2% with the 5%, basically.

Asylbek Osmonov

Exactly. So that's the where spread comes in. I think on the duration, I think it's around -- maybe new ones putting four.

David Zalman

Four to five.

Asylbek Osmonov

Yes, Four to five.

David Zalman

Yes, the duration. So 15-year mortgage-backed security with an average duration probably anywhere from three to five. I mean, depending on the coupon basically of where you're going to be. We haven't -- Jon, they're probably the -- we haven't bought a bunch of securities. We have been buying some. A lot of this stuff -- a number of the stuff that we did buy was primarily for CRA purposes and stuff like that.
Having said that, we did buy probably a couple of hundred million dollars here recently because we did -- we had excess funds, and we've gotten through paying down the 3.9% is down to 2.7%. So we are buying some. We are starting to buy back some now, but a lot of our excess money had been going just to reduce that debt at the bed and borrowings, which we were paying how much on?

Asylbek Osmonov

About 4.4%, I would think.

David Zalman

So even that, I mean that was really a net interest margin improvement if you're getting two on your bond portfolio that we were still -- might have not gotten the 5, but we still had a good margin and reducing the 4.4%.

Asylbek Osmonov

That's correct.

Jon Arfstrom

Okay. Good. That's helpful. And then, David, back on capital, you're doing a return on tangible of 13% with 11% tangible equity, which is incredible. I've seen you run with much lower TCE over the years I've covered you.
But what's optimal TCE for you? How do you think about optimal capital? Because it just feels like it's incredibly high at this point.

David Zalman

It's high. I remember the days when we started, we had a 3% tangible capital ratio. So this is extremely high. But I -- it's a high-class problem, I guess, I would say. On the other hand, there is no doubt in my mind that we're going to use that money. So I think if we do a deal, it will probably be -- there will be a combination of cash and stock.
And right now, if the market gets crazy, the good thing is we have enough to do an all cash, but it's a small deal. So I think it just gives us a lot of optionality. I wouldn't want to just say here's a special dividend or something like that because I do feel that we're going to be able to use it. And we'll -- our return on tangible capital usually has been around 16%. It's been -- again, we had two things that affected that. One, net interest margin falling to 2.75%.
That in and of itself reduced that return. But now that you've got 11.2% tangible capital, that's a little bit of a stress on it itself. But I can promise you, we're going to use it. We're going to use it whether it's through the buyback of stock or through the mergers and acquisition, we will use the money.

H. Timanus

I think the really nice thing about it is the flexibility that it gives us to look at acquisitions, to look at buybacks, to look at dividends. I mean we can look at all three, maybe do a little of each, right? I mean, it's a good place to be.

Jon Arfstrom

Okay. I remember the 4% days, I do. But is there a minimum in your mind that you wouldn't go below?

David Zalman

Just from my mind, again, I'd like to not go below 8%. But if we had -- we bought -- if we did a bigger deal and it fell to 7.5% or 7.75% and it took us at the end of the year to get back to 8%, that's probably acceptable.

Operator

Ebrahim Poonawala, Bank of America.

Ebrahim Poonawala

Hey, good morning. David, I wanted to follow up on M&A. You've seen public stocks down 20%, 30% in the last couple of months. As much as about M&A and psychology of CEOs and boards, do you think we need a significant recovery in public stock prices for a deal to pan out where you don't have to pay a massive premium?
Like, how do you think that plays itself out? And also remind us, are there private bank M&A opportunities in or out of Texas that you're looking at which are realistic and meaningful?

David Zalman

I guess the first -- I'll answer to the first question. I think I understood that is basically based on the stock prices where they're at today, do they have to go up to get more deals or -- and I would say that basically, if what's happened in the last few days and the trend is where it's at right now, we're seeing that -- I think that we'll still be able to do deals because people have seen the volatility, especially in our price, where we were at $80 and then probably averaged $75 and now you're $67.
But we were dealing with some of the same people a few years ago where our stock price dropped to $55. And so they've seen us, they've watched us. And I think that they feel comfortable that if they take our product based on our stock price where it is today, they'll be fine. They've seen tremendous black swan activities over the last couple of years, and I think they have the confidence in us.
But the good part is if they don't -- even if you have some private deals and with the amount of capital that we have, I think it just really gives us the advantage for somebody that may want -- maybe not the whole thing in cash, but a certain percentage of cash. We have that ability to provide that with the excess capital that we have. So very confident, where we're at.

Ebrahim Poonawala

Got it. That's helpful. And I guess maybe one, Kevin, for you on the mortgage warehouse. So you talked about the new commitments. I'm just wondering, how do you think about the interplay between where mortgage rates are, what that warehouse balance could look like in the summer or over the next year?
Is there a certain point where the warehouse activity picks up meaningfully? It just feels like we might be in a decade of very low refi activity. And would love to hear how you think about that and what that means for if there is an upper end to what your warehouse balances could look like?

Kevin Hanigan

Yes, it is rate dependent. Believe it or not, it wasn't that long ago, we were talking about refi -- people doing refis when rates were low. And now we're looking at -- in my mind, as I said in my comments, at this level of rates, I'm a little bit worried about the tail end of this quarter if we stay at these levels. So I think rates are going to play an impact on the tail end of this quarter because a lot of this stuff is baked in. You take an application in a -- generally six months or six weeks after that, you're closing the loan.
So I've always said we've got really, really good vision over the next six weeks. And then it becomes more rate dependent. So I think that rate dependency will hit the tail end of this quarter to the extent rates stay high and could bleed into the -- what is normally a very strong third quarter. So that's just how I think about it. We'll see where rates go and we'll take it from there.
If I could just go back to your M&A question, I agree with everything David said. There is some psychological impact for all of us. When rates are high, everything feels good, right? And it feels like more deals out of -- ought to happen. But as you know, and as we try to convince people, to the extent we've all moved in concert with each other as a group, exchange ratio math doesn't change. It's just relative math. And most really knowledgeable CEOs end up getting there over the psychology of it all.

Ebrahim Poonawala

That's helpful, color. Thank you both.

Operator

Seeing no further questions. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Charlotte Rasche for any closing remarks.

Charlotte Rasche

Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for taking the time to participate in our call today. We appreciate your support of our company, and we will continue to work on building shareholder value.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.