Good morning, and welcome to the Peoples Bancorp Inc. conference call. My name is Ailey, and I will be your conference facilitator. Today's call will cover a discussion of the results of operations for the quarterly period and fiscal year ended December thirty-first, two thousand twenty-one. Please be advised that all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then one on your telephone keypad, and questions will be taken in the order they are received. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. This call is also being recorded. If you object to the recording, please disconnect at this time. Please be advised that the commentary in this call will contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding Peoples' future financial performance or future events. These statements are based on management's current expectations. The statements in this call which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements and involve a number of risks and uncertainties detailed in Peoples' Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Management believes these forward-looking statements made during the call are based on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of their knowledge of Peoples' business and operations. However, it is possible actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Peoples disclaims any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements after this call, except as may be required by applicable legal requirements. Peoples' fourth quarter 2021 earnings release was issued this morning and is available at peoplesbancorp.com under Investor Relations. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures discussed during this call to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included at the end of the earnings release. This call will include about 20-25 minutes of prepared commentary, followed by a question-and-answer period, which I will facilitate. An archived webcast of this call will be available on peoplesbancorp.com in the Investor Relations section for one year. Participants in today's call will be Chuck Sulerzyski, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Kathryn Bailey, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, and each will be available for questions following opening statements. Mr. Sulerzyski, you may begin your conference. Thank you, Ailey. Good morning, everyone? Thank you for joining us. We are excited to report our earnings for the fourth quarter, which included the full quarter impact of Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc. acquisition. We have many positives, including record earnings for the quarter at $27.9 million. Net interest income grew 28% compared to the linked quarter and was up 24% for the full year compared to 2020. Our fee-based income improved 13% compared to the linked quarter and 8% compared to the full year of 2020. Total revenue increased 24% compared to the linked quarter, 43% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, and 19% compared to the full year of 2020. Our cost of funds declined to 17 basis points for the fourth quarter, which is our best ever. The efficiency ratio, both reported and adjusted for non-core items, declined compared to the linked quarter. We had considerable loan growth in our core portfolio along with our acquired businesses. Demand deposits stood at 47.9% of total deposits, an all-time high, and our non-interest-bearing deposits comprised 28% of our total deposits at December 31, 2021, and we met our year-end target of 90% forgiveness of SBA PPP loans originated by Peoples. To summarize our financial performance, we reported earnings of $0.99 per diluted share for the fourth quarter and net income of $47.7 million or $2.16 per diluted share for the full year. Our results were positively impacted by $0.04 per diluted share for the fourth quarter due to the gain of approximately $60 million of loans acquired from Premier that we sold at par. This loan sale represented an opportunity to improve credit and concentration metrics. Of the $60 million we sold, $52 million were considered criticized loans. $19 million of the sold loans fell within hospitality category, reductions of which we see as an opportunity to reinvent in other areas. The sale will reduce our revenue by around $3 million annually, but the upgrades in credit and segment concentration are more favorable to our shareholders going forward. As you have seen over the past five years in our investor deck, our criticized and classified portfolios have been below the Midwest average for several years. We believe that this sale of loans is a move in maintaining our very high credit quality standards while also improving our capital ratio. Acquisition-related costs reduced diluted EPS by $0.03 for the fourth quarter and $0.76 for 2021. Our COVID-19 related expenses negatively impacted diluted EPS by $0.02 for the fourth quarter and $0.04 for the year. Additionally, we had a revision in the expenses associated with the renegotiation of our core processing and digital banking contracts, which resulted in a benefit of $0.02 per diluted share for the fourth quarter. For the fourth quarter, we released nearly $8 million in provision for credit losses, which positively impacted diluted EPS by $0.21. This was driven by the $60 million in loans we sold during the quarter, for which we released around $6 million of related allowance, reducing provision for credit losses. Our view of the economic forecast improved relative to the linked quarter, further reducing the provision for credit losses. We continue to take a conservative approach to the assumptions within our CECL model and work to reflect what we believe are the most reasonable economic indicators. At year-end, our allowance for credit losses comprised 1.5% of total loans, and we believe there may be opportunities for future reduction. Compared to the end of the third quarter, our loan balances declined $12 million. As I mentioned earlier, we completed the sale of about $60 million of loan balances, and we also received $49 million in PPP forgiveness payments during the fourth quarter. Excluding the loan sale and PPP balances, loan growth was $95 million, or nearly 9% annualized compared to September 30, 2021. We had over $0.5 billion of commercial loans originated during 2021, which is over $100 million more than our best previous year. Our commercial and industrial loans led the increase with $82 million in growth of 45% annualized, excluding PPP loans and loans sold. At the same time, our construction balances grew $35 million or 80% annualized, and our leasing business added $11 million or 40% annualized. As we have noted in previous earnings call, the line of credit utilization rates have remained below historic levels since the beginning of the pandemic. During the fourth quarter, we grew our commitments on the commercial lines of credit by $50 million and expanded our commercial lines of credit utilization rate from 34% at the end of September to 39% at year-end. Compared to December 31, 2020, our loan balances grew 7% excluding Premier, PPP, and lease balances. At year-end, our PPP loans stood at $87 million, which included $23 million acquired from Premier. As far as PPP forgiveness, we are over 90% forgiveness of all PPP loans originated by Peoples. While it's early in the first quarter, we expect our loan growth for the first quarter of 2022 to be in the mid- to high-single digits on an annualized basis. From a credit quality perspective, many of our metrics improved compared to the linked quarter end. Our quarterly annualized net charge-off rate improved seven basis points compared to the linked quarter and totaled 11 basis points for the fourth quarter. Our non-performing assets declined $5 million or 9% compared to the linked quarter, while our criticized and classified loan balances also decreased. The current portion of the loan portfolio stood at 98.8% compared to 98.9% at September 30. For the full year of 2021, our net charge-off rate was 13 basis points, an increase compared to five basis points for 2020. This increase was driven by net charge-offs from the new leasing portfolio, along with recoveries recognized during 2020, lowering the net charge-off rate for that year. Our non-performing assets declined $5 million compared to the linked quarter end, while our criticized and classified loans were down 17% and 25% respectively over the same period. As I mentioned earlier, the loan sale improved these metrics during the fourth quarter. As a preferred SBA lender, we are proud to report that we ranked in the top five in Ohio, top 10 in West Virginia, and top 15% nationally in terms of SBA 7(a) approved dollars for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021. We are also working to grow our business in the Premier footprint, and our teams have successfully added new business and continue to have strong referral activity. We have had success introducing insurance, investment, treasury management, indirect lending, and other opportunities that were not previously available to Premier clients. Since the acquisition, we have closed business in each of these areas and expect growth in each of our businesses going forward. As we have done over the past two years, we are trying to be proactive in reducing the exposure to COVID for both our associates and clients. At this time, 80% of our associates are fully vaccinated. As an employer, we were recognized by the American Banker as one of the best banks to work for in 2021, of which only 90 banks nationwide were included on the list, and only 12 of these banks were our size or larger. We continue to make our associates a high priority, and our positive culture has been a key to our various accomplishments. As we have done on occasion previously, we granted shares to our associates who were up to the assistant vice president level during the fourth quarter of 2021. While this comes at a cost, we value the opportunity to make our associates shareholders of the company and provide them with an ownership stake, both to reward their efforts and to align their interests with the success of the organization. In an effort to help our local communities, our associates have collectively donated $117,000 to local food banks during 2021, and a total of $233,000 since the beginning of the pandemic. Our commitment to our communities as an organization starts with our associates, who take deep pride in helping others and taking care of their community. Additionally, in the wake of the tornadoes that impacted Kentucky in recent months, our foundation, along with our employees and third-party partners, donated nearly $53,000 to immediate relief efforts associated with communities impacted by the tornadoes. I will now turn the call over to Kathryn for additional details around our financial performance. Thank you, Chuck. For the fourth quarter, our net interest income improved by 28% compared to the linked quarter, reflecting the full quarter impact of the Premier acquisition. At the same time, we had some noise in our net interest margin, which was 13 basis points lower than the linked quarter and was driven by high cash balances, which were at an average balance of $350 million for the quarter and negatively impacted margin by 19 basis points. We anticipate our cash balances will continue to be inflated for the foreseeable future as we continue to see strong core deposit growth trends and seasonal governmental deposit increases will also put upward pressure on cash balances. We also had lower lease accretion income, which declined $676,000 compared to the third quarter, driving down our lease yield while reducing net interest margin by four basis points. For the fourth quarter, accretion income, net of amortization expense from acquisitions added nine basis points to net interest margin, while PPP income provided seven basis points. Compared to the linked quarter, we had an 11 basis point decline in our net interest margin due to the lower PPP income, as we had fewer loans forgiven during the quarter and therefore less income on deferred fees and costs recognized. We continue to be proactive in managing our funding costs as we have been throughout the pandemic, which declined another six basis points compared to the linked quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, our net interest income grew 59%, which was driven by the acquired lease and Premier portfolios. Our net interest margin grew 24 basis points compared to the prior year quarter. The leasing business added 23 basis points to margin compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, while we cut our funding costs nearly in half, which was offset by lower PPP income. Again, cash was a drag on the margin for the fourth quarter and reduced margin by 18 basis points compared to six basis points for the fourth quarter of 2020. For the full year of 2021, net interest income grew 24% as we completed the leasing and Premier acquisitions, coupled with the full year impact of the Premium Finance acquisition and our own core growth. Our net interest margin expanded 15 basis points compared to 2020. We actively managed our funding costs, which were down 18 basis points, but the positive impact was muted by our high cash balances, which reduced margin by 15 basis points for 2021 compared to seven basis points for 2020. For the year, PPP income added 15 basis points to margin compared to two basis points for 2020, while the leasing portfolio added 21 basis points during 2021. For the quarter, our reported efficiency ratio declined significantly as we experienced much lower acquisition-related expenses compared to the linked quarter. When adjusted for non-core items, our adjusted efficiency ratio improved to 61.6% compared to 63.9% for the linked quarter. We expect to continue to see this metric decline as we reap the benefits of our recent acquisitions and associated cost savings. We continue to focus on our fee-based businesses as we benefit from diversified revenue sources of revenue. Compared to the linked quarter, our fee-based income grew $2.2 million or 13%. This was driven higher by our increased electronic banking income and deposit account service charges, both of which were bolstered by the Premier acquisition. We have also seen some growth in recent periods in our deposit account service charges, excluding the acquired accounts. Fee-based income grew 10% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, which was positively impacted by electronic banking income and deposit account service charges. We also benefited from higher income from our trust and investment and insurance divisions, which were up 16% and 7% respectively. For the full year, our fee-based income grew 8% as higher electronic banking, trust and investment, and insurance income drove much of the increase. These were partially offset by reductions in mortgage banking income and commercial swap fee income, both of which were impacted by the interest rate environment and client demand. Moving on to our expenses. Total non-interest expense was down 17% compared to the linked quarter, mostly due to the acquisition related expenses recognized last quarter. At the same time, our run rate of expenses was higher due to the Premier acquisition. Acquisition- and COVID-19-related expenses totaled $1.5 million for the fourth quarter. Professional fees also declined due to the third quarter recognition of the expense associated with our contract negotiations for our core processing and digital banking contract. Total non-interest expense increased 44% compared to the prior year quarter and was up in nearly every category due to our recent acquisitions and associated ongoing costs. For the full year, our total non-interest expense grew 36% and was driven by the acquisition-related expenses of $21.4 million and COVID-19-related expenses of $1.2 million, coupled with the associated ongoing cost of our recent acquisitions. From a balance sheet perspective, our investments grew over $100 million compared to the linked quarter. At December 31, our investments to total assets ratio was 24% and grew compared to the linked quarter end as we reinvested cash from securities that we acquired from Premier and sold late in the third quarter. Our total deposits grew by $31 million, most of which was due to an influx of non-interest-bearing deposits that grew $82 million. The increase was partially offset by reductions in our governmental deposits, which were seasonally higher last quarter, along with lower retail CDs. Excluding acquired deposits, our core deposit growth was 11% annualized compared to the linked quarter end and was up 5% from December 31, 2020. During the fourth quarter, our capital ratios continued to improve and were positively impacted by our higher net income. Our common equity Tier 1 ratio was 12.7%, our Tier 1 ratio was 13%, and our total risk-based capital ratio was 14.1%. As we had anticipated, our leverage ratio declined to 8.8% as it was inflated last quarter due to the full capital impact of the shares issued to acquire Premier, while our average assets only reflected a half month of the acquired assets. Our tangible equity to tangible assets ratio improved to 8.1% at December 31, 2021, and continues to be impacted by the remaining PPP loans, which negatively impacted this ratio by 11 basis points at year-end. Our book value per share improved $0.44 or 6% annualized compared to the linked quarter end, while our tangible book value per share grew $0.41 or 9% annualized over the same period. I will now turn the call back to Chuck for his final comments. Thank you, Kathryn. I am more optimistic about our business now than I have been at any time during my nearly 11 years with Peoples. Based on feedback both internally and externally, we are doing well servicing our clients, taking care of our communities, and providing a top-notch workplace for our associates. Our success not only comes from our financial performance, but from the impact we make throughout our organization in helping our associates in making a meaningful contribution to our communities. We completed the biggest acquisition in our company's history during 2021 and also brought in a high-yielding experienced leasing business. We are benefiting from our acquisitions and already seeing success as we expand new services to our new clients. We've experienced teams in place who work well together to focus on doing what's best for our clients throughout our footprint. Our market teams are happy to share clients between lines of business, creating an active pipeline of referrals to grow not only our banking income, but also our fee-based income. I would also like to note, as we customarily do, that our first quarter expenses are generally higher due to a few expenses that are typically expected to be recognized during the first quarter, which include employee contributions to health savings accounts, stock-based compensation expense for certain employees, higher payroll taxes, and annual merit increases. We also recognize insurance contingent income annually during the first quarter of the year, which will benefit our fee-based income. As far as our performance for 2022, we gave some early guidance last quarter, which excluded non-core items, and I would like to refresh. We expect loan growth to be between 6% and 8% excluding PPP loans. We anticipate a stabilization in credit costs as the economy becomes less impacted by the pandemic. We also believe our annual gross charge-off rates in future periods will return to a more historic level, and including leases, will be between 25-40 basis points as a percent of balances. We expect net interest margin for the full year of 2022 of between 3.5%-3.6%, which does not include any anticipated rate hikes. We expect margin to increase throughout the year, with Q1 coming in below this range. Fee-based income growth is expected to be up between 14%-16% compared to 2021. We anticipate that quarterly total non-interest expense will be between $46 million-$48 million, with the exception of the first quarter, which is typically higher, and we expect that our efficiency ratio will be in the high 50s%. As far as our performance for 2022, we plan to reap the benefits of our collaboration between lines of business and look for the opportunity for interest rates to rise, which will positively impact our net interest income and margin. As always, we continue to actively seek opportunities for acquisitions of fee-based and specialty finance businesses while we continue to absorb our most recent bank acquisition. This concludes our commentary, and we will open the call for questions. Once again, this is Chuck Sulerzyski, and joining me for the Q&A session is Kathryn Bailey, our Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call back into the hands of our facilitator. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the key. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Our first question today comes from Scott Siefers with Piper Sandler. Hey, Chuck and Kathryn. Morning? Thanks for taking the question. Morning, Scott. Hi, Scott. Hey. I was hoping we could start on the margin, either Chuck or Katie, if you just maybe some of the nuance regarding how the margin advances from the fourth quarter's 3.36% up to that 3.50%-3.60% range as the year progresses. You know, what are you thinking on excess liquidity deployment, deposit betas, et cetera? Sure. I'll start with North Star Leasing. We commented in here. It had lower accretion income, which I think hit margin about four basis points from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. That was some correction or some cleanup as we finalized the accounting as it relates to North Star. I think we'll get some of that back. You can see the yields on a year-to-date basis is closer to the 18% in that portfolio versus the fourth quarter. We printed a little under 16%. I think next year you can expect something closer to the yearly yield of 17%-18% on that portfolio. Then on the cash deployment, again, we quoted 18 basis point impact in the fourth quarter for the excess liquidity cash. We had anticipated that cash would kind of go down quarter to quarter for the reasons we noted last quarter, where our seasonal governmental deposits declined. Those did, but we saw a significant growth in non-interest-bearing deposits. Assuming some of that cash does get deployed in the loan growth, and potentially a little in the investment portfolio, but hopefully in the loan growth, that will help, and then some, as we talked last quarter, asset mix shift. We'll fund some of the loan growth both in leasing and the other businesses with the investment portfolio as we do strive to get that percentage. Right now, we're sitting at 24% of our assets are in investments. We'd like to get that closer to the range we've quoted before of 18%-20%. Okay. Those are the big Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. That's great. Thank you, Kathryn. Additionally, maybe a couple other margin-related sort of cleanup questions. Do you have a sort of good rule of thumb as regarding how you would think of the margin or NII benefit for each 25 basis point hike from the Fed? And then the final one is, I think last quarter, we were thinking maybe 10-15 basis points in purchase accounting accretion this year. Is that still roundabout of where you're thinking? Sure. I'll start with the 25 basis point hike. We quantify that on a pre-tax basis. That impact would be about $1.5 million on an annual basis. Again, you know, the forecast is March will be the first time we see that, so we wouldn't get the full year benefit in 2022, but we'd get a large portion of that 1.5 I just quoted. Yeah. Oops, sorry. Nope, that was it. Oh, okay. Then as far as the purchase accounting accretion, added nine basis points in the fourth quarter. Again, that was reduced a little bit by the North Star Leasing adjustment that I noted. I think the 10 basis point range is a fair estimate for that line as well. Perfect. All right. Thank you guys very much. Thank you, Scott. Our next question comes from Tim Switzer with KBW. Hi. How's it going? Hey, Tim. Thanks for taking my question. If I could have one more on kind of the NII and NIM impacts that we were talking about. What is the kind of breakdown between floating rate and fixed rate among your earning asset portfolio across securities in the loan book? On the loan portfolio, it's about 50/50. On the investment portfolio, it's largely fixed. Okay, great. Thank you. If we could move on to the Premier acquisition. You guys talked about how you had some pretty good revenue opportunities, it sounds like, across the different business lines, offering some new products. Could you talk about that a little bit? I don't know if you're able to quantify anything yet now that it's closed, but if you could just kind of talk about how it could, maybe provide some upside to 2022. Well, a couple of different thoughts, just kind of go through the lines of business. You know, on their retail operation, they did not provide home equity loans. I think we've already done over half a million dollars of home equity loans, and I think that number will grow as the employees become more comfortable with it. They didn't have insurance options, and they did not have investment options, in particular, the 401(k) plan. We have closed some of those already, and I think that'll accelerate. Those are long lead times in terms of getting sales completed. As the time goes on, we'll see more and more of that. On commercial, you know, we are the largest McDonald's lender in the state of Ohio, and they really didn't have any of that opportunity. Therefore for a, you know, dealer floor plan, which is a good business for us, is something that they did not have the capability of, and we've already gotten a couple of those, to the, you know, to the finish line. That plus the, you know, simply just the lending capacity where, you know, our house limit is $30 million and their, you know, theirs is, you know, was quite a bit less. Finally, just the treasury management capabilities. Our capabilities are much more robust and just kind of packaged into how we do the things that we do. All of that is, just upside gravy for us. That's awesome. Thanks for the details. That's all for me. Thank you. Thanks, Tim. Our next question comes from Bryce Rowe with Hovde Group. Thanks. Good morning? I maybe wanted to follow up on the questions around NIM and asset sensitivity. One more for you, Katie, in terms of the disclosures there in the 10-Q. You noted what the impact would be from an increase by the Fed. What kind of deposit beta assumption do you have baked into that model? Yeah, of course, it varies by products. I would say on average, it's about a 25%. Okay, that's great. That's helpful. Just around kind of deposit mix and you know obviously you all see seasonal flows from time to time from the government deposits. Just curious how your product offering kind of stacks up, your pricing kind of stacks up to retain you know deposits across the deposit portfolio. Do you kind of expect the same level of seasonal inflows that you generally see you know from the government side of things? I think on the governmental side, we do expect the same seasonality. You know, it ramps up and it'll be a high point in March and then again in September, and kind of the low point is usually December thirty-first. Okay, great. Maybe one more on the guidance. You know, appreciate all the updates or the refresh that you've given here. The 14%-16% increase in the non-interest income or the fees. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, maybe what's driving that? You know, what line items within that, fee income, are driving that? That seems like, you know, certainly a nice number to hit and would help drive earnings as we look forward. Thanks. Sure. We saw some significant growth, well, sizable growth in the fourth quarter. Again, we'll have Premier, the Premier acquisition in there for the full year next year. That'll provide another almost three full quarters, increment to what we had in 2021. That's some growth both in the electronic banking line item you can see, and then the deposit account service charge line as well. Couple other things I'll note is as it relates to the commercial loan swap fee income that we recorded this year was pretty light for us given the environment. We expect some recovery in that line item. You can look at the past trends where we've been. It's been higher than what we saw this year. The other line or the other item I would note is just the leasing business that we acquired back in April. There is some opportunity there, to get some fee income from that, and we expect to see some growth there. Again, we'll have them for another quarter, and their production continues to increase year-over-year. Yeah. The other thing that I would add to that is in 2021, our investment business had fee growth over 20%. While 14%-16% may sound, you know, ambitious, and it is, it's very much in the realm of possibility. Okay. All right. I'll hop back in the queue. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Again, if you do have a question, please press star then one. Our next question comes from Steve Moss with B. Riley Securities. Good morning? Hey, Steve. Maybe just, I apologize if I missed it here, Chuck, but just on the loan growth guide of 6%-8% for the year, it sounds like to me like a good chunk of it's gonna be driven on the commercial side. Just kind of if you just go through the drivers underneath there. I think you're right. It will be heavily on the commercial, including the leasing and the premium finance business during the course of the year. I think that the consumer side, I'm hopeful, cooks up in the second half of the year, but I'm not counting on it at this point in time. Okay. That's helpful. Just in terms of, you know, maybe just looking at the bigger picture here, now that you've closed a couple deals this year, kind of curious as to, you know, what your thoughts are around doing a transaction this year and how, you know, what level of chatter you're hearing out there. Well, when you say a transaction, are you explicitly a bank transaction or any transaction? I, you know, I'm not- Bank or line of business, both. Yeah. I'm not dying to do a bank transaction. I'd love to see us do some insurance transactions, investment transactions, specialty finance transactions. That would be more exciting. You know, for me, we'd still like to digest the bank that we acquired. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if some deal got announced this year, but I do not see us closing a deal, a bank deal this year. You know, I would say the level of chatter is modest. It's you know, relative to different points in time. But it is you know, ongoing with certain institutions. I remain optimistic. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate all the color. Thank you. Thanks, Steve. Our next question is a follow-up from Scott Siefers with Piper Sandler. Hey guys, thanks for taking the follow-up. Just wanted to ask on loan growth just to make sure I'm sort of squaring the circle correctly. On the 6%-8%, is that off the fourth quarter end of period base? Does that also sort of absorb the $60 million in loan sales? In other words, would reported or excuse me, would underlying growth be stronger than the 6%-8%, or is the 6%-8% sort of exclusive of the loan sale? Yeah, this loan, yeah, we're going from the end of the year balances and the loan sale is already out of the balances. Okay, perfect. You know, from that standpoint. All right, perfect. That, that's just a clean, totally sort of free and clear type number. That's good. Yes. Okay, good. Chuck was hoping, I imagine it's sorta putting two and two together. I'm guessing there's some relationship. You know, there was another of your competitors that hired a team away from the Legacy Premier. Maybe just a thought or two on, you know, sort of where you are in terms of sort of the lenders that Legacy Premier is sticking around to sort of where you are in terms of how you feel about the overall credit quality of that portfolio, et cetera. Yeah, I mean, obviously when you do a deal, you hope that people stick, but that doesn't necessarily always happen. You know, if we look at the portfolio and the things that we like about it and the things that we don't like about it, they had a greater concentration of hotels than we would like. They did a lot of specialty real estate or single purpose real estate that we're not particularly thrilled of. They probably would put money out the door more on appraisal values than cash flows than we may be inclined to. That's not stuff that we're comfortable doing, and it's probably better for us and better for them that the associates who are comfortable originating that business, and grateful that they took our portfolio at par. I mean, anytime you can unload $60 million of assets, $52 million of which is criticized and classified, and do so at par, that's a pretty good day. We feel very good about the loan sale. We feel very good about the colleagues who are with us and what they can do. We feel very good about the associates that we're adding, and we feel very good about the market opportunity in front of us. As far as the credit quality outlook, as indicated earlier in comments, we got 1.5% reserved against the portfolio, and I think that is high, and I think you'll see that decrease over time. We're very excited about the improvements in all of the credit metrics that we went through, and we feel really good about it. Perfect. Okay, good. Thank you guys very much. Thanks, Scott. Our next question comes from Dan Cardenas with Boenning & Scattergood. Good morning, guys? Hey, Dan. Hi, Dan. Just kind of a quick follow-up on the loan sale. Is that kind of a one and done, or should we expect additional sales going forward? You know, it's just the first loan sale that we've done in the 11 years that I have been here. If somebody wants to buy $60 million, $52 million of which is criticized and classified and at par, I'd do it again. Do I think that's likely? I don't. You know, I think we're probably done, but I'll never say never. Excellent. All right. In terms of your loan growth outlook, I guess more specifically looking to see if there's any categories of loans that perhaps you're gonna try to avoid, over the near term as you grow that portfolio? Well, I think we'll stick to our disciplines of what we've been, you know, of what we've been doing. You know, we're very heavily focused on C&I. Our CRE stuff is generally multifamily and, you know, in good markets. You know, we like some of the ancillary stuff that we've added, like the McDonald's franchise business. That stuff that we like, the floor plan, we're comfortable. I think that one of the things that distinguishes our portfolio is the diversification, you know, of asset classes, and obviously we've bolted on the premium finance and the leasing. I think we're gonna stay in the lanes that we're in and just try to get bigger and better. Okay. Good. Good. As I look at your capital levels, you know, nice increase on a sequential quarter basis. What are your thoughts about capital deployment, as we look forward? We, you know, obviously like the dividend and, you know, we'll continue to support the dividend over time. We, you know, in terms of buyback, we kind of look at the buyback as an acquisition and really focus on what the earn back is. At the current price, you know, we're not comfortable buying back shares currently. We remain focused on looking at acquisitions and, you know, we're happy to, you know, see all of the capital levels improving and the tangible book value per share increasing. Okay. Just a reminder, what's left in your current buyback program? I think it's about $20 million. I don't think we went out with a new plan last in January of last year. We have not used anything under it. Okay, great. All my other questions have been asked and answered. Thanks, guys. Okay. Thank you, Dan. Thanks, Dan. At this time, there are no further questions. Sir, do you have any closing remarks? Yes. I wanna thank everyone for joining our call this morning. Please remember to root for the Bengals this weekend. Please remember that our earnings release and webcast of this call will be archived at peoplesbancorp.com under the Investor Relations section. Thank you for your time. I wish everyone good health and have a great day. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, yo u may now disconnect.