Mr. Lipkin: The company is a commercial bank, founded in 1927. It has served the northeastern New Jersey marketplace ever since its formation. The bank today has 118 offices in northern New Jersey, serving 79 communities and seven offices in Manhattan. We serve a little over 425,000 households and currently have in excess of 8.1 billion in assets. We are listed on the New York Stock Exchange as NYSE:BLY and the company has had 74 consecutive years of profitable operations without ever having a loosing quarter. We increased our cash dividends 32 out of the last 33 years and we currently pay 1.06 a share.
TWST: Could you give us the recent financial history and the important milestones there?
Mr. Lipkin: It has just been a steady increase. Last year, the bank, adjusted for the acquisition of Merchants Bank, earned 1.67 a share. It had an ROA of 1.72 and an ROE of 20.28. This year for the first six months on an annualized basis we have an ROA of 1.77 an ROE of 20.72 and our earnings per share for six months were 89 cents.
Tickers included in this excerpt: VLY
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