HTLF released its third-quarter financial results this afternoon. Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to go at the earnings release, which can be found on the company’s website, @htlf.com. President and CEO Bruce Lee, Chief Financial Officer Bryan McKeag, and Chief Credit Officer Nathan Jones are present today from management. After management sums up the quarter, we’ll open the call up for your questions. I want to remind everyone before we start the presentation that certain material we’re going to be sharing today is subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s definition of forward-looking statements. Any remarks made during this presentation about the Company’s expectations, beliefs, aspirations, and forecasts for the future are forward-looking statements as defined by these guidelines.
The Company’s 10-K and 10-Q filings, which are available on the Company’s and the SEC’s websites, provide further information on these factors from time to time. Now, I’d like to pass the call along to Mr. Bruce Lee, the President and CEO of HTLF. Kindly proceed, Mr. Lee.
Good day to everyone of you. I’m Bruce Lee, the CEO and President. Welcome to the third quarter results conference call for HTLF in 2023. Thank you for joining us today as we talk about our consistent strong performance. I’ll talk about HTLF’s quarterly highlights for the next few minutes before handing the conference over to Chief Financial Officer Bryan McKeag for further information on our results and finances. Nathan Jones, Chief Credit Officer, is also here today and is available to address any queries on the consistent credit quality throughout our portfolios. A quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share on the company’s common stock, due on November 29, 2023, was approved by the HTLF Board of Directors.
Every quarter for over 40 years, HTLF has raised or maintained the dividend on our common shares. This is directly related to the power, wisdom, and expansion we always offer to our clients and investors. HTLF saw strong growth in both loans and deposits during the third quarter. Our credit standing is unchanged. Additionally, we successfully finished the last charter consolidation conversion in October. Earnings per share for the quarter were $1.08 and net income available to common stockholders was $46.1 million.
Charter consolidation costs resulted in a $0.04 drop in EPS. We are happy with the outcome and fulfilled our balance sheet guidance from the previous quarter’s earnings call. We said at the conclusion of the previous quarter that we would increase loans, increase client deposits, and pay off wholesale funding.
We succeeded in achieving each of those three goals. Consumer deposit increase from the same quarter was $152 million, or 1%. We paid down wholesale deposits and borrowings by $367 million, and our client deposit increase almost entirely covered the $154 million, or 1%, total loan growth.
In the process, we also reduced spending, with core expenditures falling by $3.3 million, or 3%, from the same period. Starting with deposits, let’s. Our deposit base is finely divided and varied. Geographically and sector-wise, customer deposits are diversified, with no industry concentration exceeding 10% throughout our portfolios. Customer deposits rose by $152 million in the third quarter; 10% came from consumers and 90% from small and medium businesses.
The continuous, albeit gradual, shift to interest-bearing accounts is reflected in the minor decline in customer demand accounts to 33% of client balances, even though we continue to maintain a favourable deposit mix. There was a $367 million drop in wholesale deposits and borrowings compared to the previous quarter. The decrease in wholesale deposits was $715 million, while the increase in borrowings was $348 million. The quarter’s total deposits dropped to $17.1 billion overall. Of total amounts, 64% are collateralized or insured. borrowing money. Our commercial loan portfolios continued to show strength in the third quarter, with gains in each. Non-owner occupied real estate rose $126 million, or 5%, from the same period. Construction had a $16 million or 2% rise.
Owner-occupied real estate had a $31 million or 1% gain, while commercial and industrial saw a minor increase. Our agricultural portfolio also saw a slight increase. As expected, the total amount of commercial and agricultural loans increased by $176 million, or 2%, from the same quarter. We established 269 new commercial contacts in the third quarter, which equates to funded loans of $253 million and new deposits of $95 million. Variable rate structures are present in 81% of newly originated commercial loans; this is a 12% rise from the previous year and unchanged from the linked quarter. Compared to the second quarter, the yield on these new originations climbed by 27 basis points. With over $1 billion in sales, our commercial pipeline is still robust. While it is spread throughout our regions, the Mountain West and Southwest are its strongest areas.
For the next twelve months, this presupposes a tolerable degree of economic recession and comparatively stable credit performance. Excluding gains or losses from investments, core non-interest income is predicted to remain constant at $28 million to $29 million. As we implement new rules throughout our now single-charter client base, we anticipate a decrease in consumer NSF and OD fees, and we continue to observe a dip in mortgage-related income. Higher capital markets fees will counteract both of these. It is anticipated that recurring operational costs would reach $109 million to $110 million. All potential new FDIC assessments for the upcoming quarter are not included in this.
The final consolidation implementation costs as well as the costs to finish a number of span of control improvements next quarter as we realise the remaining benefits of the charter consolidation project are projected to total between $2 million and $3 million in charter consolidation restructuring costs.
As we started to implement the next stage of facilities optimisation and other HTLF 3.0 efforts, we also anticipate that we will have some more restructuring charges and real estate write-downs that will be incurred over the course of the following few quarters. Next quarter, we’ll be able to provide additional information about our projections for 2024 performance, including how these new HTLF 3.0 activities will affect things.
Over the next quarters, we want to continue achieving organic growth while simultaneously cutting costs, raising EPS, and expanding TCE. In order to optimise efficiency and flexibility, we are continuously assessing our capital structure, balance sheet, and span of control. We are also examining our expense structure, taking into account factors like branch locations, management tiers, and span of control. With these measures, we anticipate certain one-time costs; Bryan will go into further detail in his remarks. More information about HTLF 3.0 will be provided in January during our fourth quarter results call.
We keep improving our monitoring, portfolio management, and the way we evaluate fresh underwriting prospects. Please refer to page 16 of the investor deck for further information regarding our CRE office exposure. We finished the last charter consolidation conversion earlier this month, as I indicated at the top. Now that HTLF Bank has divided into all of our regional bank brands, we can service any client wherever within our service area. The nearly two-year project was finished on time and below budget, increasing internal efficiency even as we keep generating growth from the outside in. For our upcoming phase, HTLF 3.0, we are now strategically and structurally positioned to carry out new projects that make use of our strengths, products, technologies, and brand.