Carter Bankshares (CARE) Q3 2026 earnings summary

Executive summary

• Q3 net income was $7.761M ($0.35 diluted EPS); adjusted net income was $7.561M, versus $5.419M and $5.711M in Q3 2025, respectively.

• Nine-month net income was $122.4M, or $5.53 diluted EPS, versus $22.9M a year earlier; adjusted net income was $27.8M versus $22.3M.

• Loans were $3.771B, up $36.0M QoQ; excluding the $209.5M NPL relationship sold in Q1, loans grew $163.5M, or 4.53%, YoY.

Financial highlights

• Net interest income was $41.232M, up $1.282M QoQ and $7.513M YoY; provision for credit losses was $10.476M versus $2.010M in Q2 and $2.896M in Q3 2025.

• Noninterest income was $4.984M, versus $28.7M in Q2, which included a $35.9M insurance transaction gain and $12.5M securities-sale loss; Q3 2025 was $5.4M.

• Q3 noninterest expense was $29.5M, up $0.8M YoY; nine-month expense rose $4.5M YoY to $90.5M, including higher salaries and data processing costs.

• Total assets were $4.731B, deposits $4.117B and shareholders’ equity $526.9M at quarter-end; deposits declined $80.2M QoQ and $93.0M YoY.

Outlook and guidance

• Management cited a healthy lending pipeline and momentum in small business and C&I lending; construction commitments are expected to fund over the next 12–18 months as projects progress.

• Strategy priorities include investing in people, infrastructure and technology, improving operations and customer experience, and expanding market presence; a new SBA 7(a) team supports small-business lending.

• Funding priorities include growing lower-cost nonmaturity deposits; 81.0% of the $1.8B CD portfolio matures within 12 months and 96.0% within 24 months.