United Bancorp, Inc.

What they do

The company is an Ohio-incorporated bank holding company headquartered at 201 South Fourth Street, Martins Ferry, Ohio. It is classified as a non-accelerated filer and smaller reporting company, and its financial statements are audited by S. R. Snodgrass, P.C. of Cranberry, PA. Its business is banking: deposits, loans and securities, with 5,756,852 common shares outstanding as of March 11, 2026.

Revenue drivers

• Net interest income on loans and securities — The company earns interest on loans and securities; it attributes revenue growth to a larger interest-earning asset base and loans repricing at higher rates, with total interest income up $293,000, or 1.5%, year-over-year in the first half of 2026.
• Securities portfolio — Securities rose $13.1 million year-over-year to $244.3 million as of June 30, 2026, and are a meaningful component of the $878.0 million balance sheet.
• Deposit funding franchise — Total deposits grew $44.0 million, or 6.8%, to $686.9 million, with lower-cost noninterest bearing demand, interest bearing demand and savings deposits at $481.9 million, or 70.2% of total deposits, and time deposits at $205.0 million, or 29.8%.
• Bank owned life insurance — Bank owned life insurance increased $18.5 million year-over-year to $38.5 million as of June 30, 2026 and is cited among the main drivers of asset growth.

Recent performance

For the three months ended June 30, 2026, UBCP reported net income of $2,095,000 and diluted EPS of $0.36, increases of $180,000, or 9.4%, and $0.03, or 9.1%, over the second quarter of 2025. On a linked-quarter basis, net income rose $184,000, or 9.6%, and diluted EPS rose $0.03, or 9.1%. For the first six months of 2026, net income was $4,006,000, up $219,000, or 5.8%, and diluted EPS was $0.69, up $0.04, or 6.2%, year-over-year. Year-over-year, total assets increased $30.1 million, or 3.6%, to $878.0 million, while total interest expense declined $380,000, or 5.1%, and interest expense to average assets fell 17 basis points to 1.62%.

Strategy

Management states the company is focused on the future and has undertaken several transformative projects that add expense and are somewhat dilutive to earnings at present. It describes investment in company infrastructure and growth as developing in line with its visions and projections. Management says it expects a return on these infrastructure investments over the next twelve to twenty-four months, which it believes should lead to higher earnings and help ensure UBCP's relevancy.

Risks

• Transformative project costs — Management states the company's transformative projects have created additional expense and are somewhat dilutive to earnings at present.
• Geopolitical and macro uncertainty — Management cites heightened economic uncertainty in the first half of 2026, including U.S. and Israeli military action on Iran in late February, as creating disruption in the global economy.
• Funding mix and rate sensitivity — Deposit growth was split between lower-cost demand and savings balances of $481.9 million (70.2% of deposits) and higher-cost time deposits of $205.0 million (29.8%), leaving results sensitive to deposit pricing.
• Small reporting company status — The company is a non-accelerated filer and smaller reporting company with a $66,087,390 market value of common stock held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2025, which can limit scale and investor visibility.

Outlook

Management says it is satisfied with increasing earnings and content with how infrastructure and growth investment is developing relative to its projections. It believes a very nice return on these investments should appear over the next twelve to twenty-four months, leading to higher earnings and helping ensure UBCP's relevancy for many years. It notes its year-to-date 2026 results are higher than the same period of 2025 despite the added project expense and geopolitical uncertainty.