United Security Bancshares, parent company of Fresno’s United Security Bank, reported net quarterly income of $1.77 million, up slightly from the first quarter of 2016.

Earnings were 10 cents per share for the three months ended March 31, unchanged from the same period a year ago.

Dennis Woods, president and CEO, added that the earnings on paper do not tell the whole story.

“There is an important matter not apparent to the casual reader of this earnings release that I want to point out,” Woods said in a statement. “Excluding the Fair Value Adjustment for Trust Preferred Securities (TRUPS), net income was $1,972,600 for the three months ended March 31, 2017, an increase of approximately 27% compared to net income of $1,554,200 for the three months ended March 31, 2016.”  

Mr. Woods explained that “the TRUPS Fair Value Adjustment is not part of Core Income and depending upon market rates, can ‘add to’ or ‘subtract from’ Core Income and mask Core Income change.”

TRUPS are generally defined as a hybrid security that has features of both debt and equity.

Total assets in the first quarter decreased half a percentage point to nearly $784.1 million.