Chesapeake Financial Shares, Inc., the parent company of both Chesapeake Bank and Chesapeake Wealth Management, reported record earnings for the 2020 calendar year of $11,749,391, representing a 3.1 percent increase over 2019 earnings, according to Chesapeake Chairman of the Board and CEO Jeffrey M. Szyperski.

The reported earnings per share were $2.395 fully diluted as compared to $2.292 in 2019. “Due to COVID, 2020 was challenging and thanks to the resiliency of both our employees as well as our customers we had a very successful year,” said Szyperski.

“We have worked diligently over the last 25+ years to diversify our revenue stream and this is reflected in our earnings,” he said. “A strong mortgage market as well as record-breaking asset growth were the primary contributors to the record-breaking year. Of the roughly $3 million in Paycheck Protection Program fees earned, only $770,000 were recognized into income in 2020. In addition to our strong earnings, American Banker named us one of the ‘Top 200 Community Banks’ in the United States for the 13th consecutive year and one of the ‘Best Banks to Work For’ for the eighth consecutive year.”

At the Jan. 22 Chesapeake Financial Shares Board of Directors meeting, the board increased its quarterly dividend to $0.130 per share effective March 1, 2021, payable on or before March 15, 2021. Currently, the stock has a 2.23 percent dividend yield. “Chesapeake Financial Shares ended the year December 31, 2020 with total assets of $1,207,714,231, a 26.0 percent increase over year-end 2019. This large increase was largely fueled by economic stimulus and Paycheck Protection Program funds as part of the CARES Act,” Szyperski stated. “We strengthened our loan loss reserve in 2020, and it represented 1.34 percent of total loans (excluding PPP) at December 31, 2020. Nonperforming assets were 1.034 percent as of December 31, 2020 compared to 0.881 percent at December 31, 2019 representing a 17.4 percent increase. Given the level of economic disruption in 2020, we feel thankful for being able to maintain such strong asset quality,” he said.