Operator

Thank you for standing by. My name is Rebecca, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Univest Financial Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Jeff Schweitzer, Chairman, President and CEO of Univest Financial Corporation. Please go ahead.

Jeff Schweitzer
Chairman, President & CEO

Thank you, Rebecca, and good morning, and thank you to all of our listeners for joining us. Joining me on the call this morning is Mike Keim, our Chief Operating Officer and President of Univest Bank and Trust; and Brian Richardson, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone of the forward-looking statements disclaimer. Please be advised that during the course of this conference call, management may make forward-looking statements that express management's intentions, beliefs or expectations within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Univest's actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. I will refer you to the forward-looking cautionary statements in our earnings release and in our SEC filings.

Hopefully, everyone had a chance to review our earnings release from yesterday. If not, it can be found on our website at univest.net under the Investor Relations tab. We had a strong start to the year as we reported net income for the first quarter of $27.1 million or $0.96 per share, which was a 24.7% increase compared to earnings per share