Community Bancorp third-quarter earnings rise to $5.1 million
The Miles Block on North Main Street in downtown Barre, one of the cities where Community National Bank has a retail office. Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Community Bancorp., the Derby-based parent of Community National Bank, said Oct. 26 that third-quarter earnings rose to $5.1 million, or 91 cents a share, from $4.7 million, or 84 cents a share, a year earlier.
That is an increase of $344,000, or 7.24%, the company reported in an earnings release filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Earnings for the first nine months of 2026 were $14.1 million, or $2.53 a share, up $1.8 million, or 14.72%, from $12.3 million, or $2.18 a share, in the same period of 2025. Vermont Business Magazine carried the same figures the next day.
President and CEO Christopher Caldwell said tangible book value per share had grown 6.5% since the start of the year, “even though higher interest rates have lowered the fair value of our investment securities,” and was up almost 11% from a year earlier. Third-quarter earnings per share rose 8% from the year-ago quarter, he said, and year-to-date earnings per share were 16% higher than in the first nine months of 2025.
“Our net interest margin is now above 4% for the quarter,” Caldwell said. The release put the net interest margin at 4.11% in the third quarter, up from 3.79% a year earlier. Noninterest expense to average assets was 2.27% at the end of the quarter, and the efficiency ratio was 51.1%.
Total assets were $1.23 billion as of Sept. 30, down $56 million from the end of 2025 but $5.4 million, or 0.44%, higher than a year earlier. The year-to-date decline, the company said, mainly reflects lower cash balances used to fund loan growth, pay off two maturing advances totaling $25 million, and cover a seasonal drop in deposits. Gross loans rose $60.3 million, or 6.26%, from a year earlier. Deposits increased $35.5 million, or 3.52%, from Sept. 30, 2025, but fell $26.9 million, or 2.51%, since year-end, a change the company attributed largely to cyclical swings in municipal and business accounts.
Equity capital stood at $120.8 million, with a book value of $21.53 a share, compared with $113.7 million and $20.36 at the end of 2025. The company had already announced a quarterly cash dividend of 26 cents a share, payable Nov. 1 to shareholders of record as of Oct. 15.
Community National Bank, founded in 1851, is headquartered in Derby and lists retail offices in Derby, Derby Line, Island Pond, Barton, Newport, Troy, St. Johnsbury, Montpelier, Barre, Lyndonville, Morrisville and Enosburg Falls, plus loan offices in Burlington and in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
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