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AmeriServ Financial Reports Increased Earnings for the Third Quarter and First Nine Months of 2007.

Article Excerpt
JOHNSTOWN, Pa., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AmeriServ Financial, Inc. reported third quarter 2007 net income of $874,000 or $0.04 per diluted share. This represents an increase of $231,000 or 35.9% over the third quarter 2006 net income of $643,000 or $0.03 per diluted share. For the nine month period ended September 30, 2007, the Company has earned $2.1 million or $0.10 per diluted share. This represents an increase of $359,000 or 20.5% when compared to net income of $1.8 million or $0.08 per diluted share for the first nine months of 2006. The following table highlights the Company's financial performance for both the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2007 and 2006:



Third Third Nine Months Nine Months Quarter Quarter Ended Ended 2007 2006 September September 30, 2007 30, 2006 Net income $874,000 $643,000 $2,110,000 $1,751,000 Diluted earnings per share $ 0.04 $ 0.03 $ 0.10 $ 0.08

At September 30, 2007, ASRV had total assets of $898 million and shareholders' equity of $88.5 million or a book value of $3.99 per share. The Company's asset leverage ratio remained strong at 10.44% at September 30, 2007.

Allan R. Dennison, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the 2007 results, "Our focus on executing our strategic plan has caused AmeriServ Financial to report improved financial performance for both the third quarter and first nine months of 2007. We are better leveraging our expense base to generate increased non-interest revenue as evidenced by the successful acquisition of West Chester Capital Advisors earlier in 2007. Continued solid growth in both loans and deposits has caused our net interest income to increase for three consecutive quarters in 2007 after bottoming in the fourth quarter of 2006. Our asset quality continues to be sound as non-performing assets amounted to only 0.39% of total loans and our loan loss reserve provided 289% coverage of non-performing assets at September 30, 2007. The recent turmoil in the financial markets that led to a reduction in interest rates positions AmeriServ Financial for further net interest income improvement in the fourth quarter."

The Company's net interest income in the third quarter of 2007 decreased by $77,000 from the prior year's third quarter and for the first nine months of 2007 decreased by $592,000 when compared to the first nine months of 2006. The Company's net interest margin is also down by six and...