Muncy Columbia Declares Double Dividend on Record 2025 Earnings

BLOOMSBURG, PA – February 18, 2026 – Muncy Columbia Financial Corporation (OTCQX: CCFN), the parent company of Journey Bank, today announced a significant return of capital to its investors, declaring both a special one-time cash dividend and an increase to its regular quarterly dividend. The move comes on the heels of what the company described as a year of record earnings and reflects deep confidence in its financial standing.

The board of directors approved a special cash dividend of $1.00 per share, a substantial reward for shareholders. This will be paid on April 23, 2026, to shareholders of record as of April 8, 2026. In addition, the board raised the regular quarterly dividend to $0.46 per share, a modest but meaningful increase of $0.01 from the previous quarter. This quarterly dividend is payable on March 19, 2026, to shareholders of record as of March 4, 2026. The dual announcements sent a strong positive signal to the market, with the company's stock (CCFN) trading up 0.78% to $61.00 on the day of the news.

A Reward for Record Performance

The decision to issue a special dividend of this magnitude is directly tied to the company's exceptional financial performance in 2025. President and CEO Lance O. Diehl stated, "We are pleased to recognize and reward our shareholders with this special one-time cash dividend. We reported record earnings in 2025 and remain committed to creating shareholder value."

Financial filings strongly corroborate this claim. Muncy Columbia Financial Corporation posted a net income of $24.2 million, or $6.85 per share, for the fiscal year 2025. This represents a remarkable increase from the $19.0 million, or $5.33 per share, reported in 2024. Key profitability metrics underscore the strength of the company's operations. The return on average assets (ROAA) climbed to 1.49%, and the return on average equity (ROAE) surged to 13.57% during 2025, figures that indicate highly efficient use of its asset base and equity.

The bank's underlying health also appears robust. Book value per share, a key measure of a bank's intrinsic worth, grew by approximately 15.6% to $54.44. Simultaneously, the institution strengthened its capital reserves, with its Tier 1 leverage ratio improving to 9.93%. This demonstrates that the generous dividend is not coming at the expense of financial stability. In fact, Diehl noted that the move allows the company "the unique opportunity to return more through this special dividend while maintaining capital above well-capitalized levels.”

The Fruits of a Strategic Merger

Today's announcement is not just a story of a single successful year, but the culmination of a multi-year strategic vision. Diehl explicitly linked the company's current strength to a pivotal event: the 2023 strategic merger with Muncy Bank Financial, Inc. This merger effectively created the current structure, with Journey Bank as the primary subsidiary operating under the Muncy Columbia Financial Corporation holding company.

"Coming off our strategic merger with Muncy Bank Financial, Inc. in 2023, growth in 2024 and 2025 has been strategically steady and has further strengthened our capital and liquidity positions," Diehl explained in the announcement. The successful integration of the two entities has evidently created a more powerful and profitable regional institution. The combined bank now serves a seven-county region—including Clinton, Columbia, Luzerne, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, and Sullivan counties—through a network of 22 banking offices. The operational hub was also consolidated with the relocation of the corporate headquarters to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in mid-2025.

The steady growth post-merger has fortified the balance sheet, which showed total assets of over $1.65 billion and total deposits nearing $1.4 billion as of late 2025. This expanded scale and operational efficiency are key factors enabling the board to approve such a significant shareholder payout.

A Pattern of Shareholder Returns

While the $1.00 special dividend is noteworthy for its size, it is part of a broader, consistent pattern of shareholder-friendly actions by the corporation. Muncy Columbia Financial Corporation has a long history of reliable dividend payments, establishing a track record that investors value. The company has steadily increased its regular dividend, with the latest $0.01 bump continuing a trend that has seen the dividend grow at an average rate of 2.53% over the past three years.

This is not the first special dividend in recent memory, though it is the largest. The company also issued a special one-time cash dividend of $0.50 per share in May 2025. The doubling of that special payout less than a year later highlights accelerating momentum. Including both regular and special distributions, total dividends declared in 2025 amounted to $2.30 per share. The company’s dividend payout ratio for its regular dividends in the past year was approximately 38%, a sustainable level that suggests earnings comfortably cover the payments with plenty of capital left for reinvestment and growth.

This history of both regular increases and periodic special dividends demonstrates a clear capital allocation policy focused on rewarding long-term investors. It reflects a management and board that are attuned to shareholder value and confident in the bank's ability to generate excess capital.

A Bellwether for Regional Economic Health

Beyond the corporate balance sheet, the robust health of a regional bank like Journey Bank can be interpreted as a positive indicator for the local economy it serves. A bank's success is intrinsically linked to the financial well-being of its customers, from individual families to small businesses and nonprofits. The bank's ability to report record earnings and improved asset quality, including a decrease in past-due loans to 1.11%, suggests that its borrower base across central Pennsylvania is on solid footing.

The increased dividend and special payout inject capital directly back into the hands of shareholders, who may be local residents and investors, potentially stimulating further economic activity. For a community-focused institution with deep roots in its seven-county service area, this financial strength enables it to continue lending, investing, and supporting regional growth. The confidence projected by Muncy Columbia Financial Corporation's board is therefore not just confidence in their own strategy, but also an implicit vote of confidence in the economic vitality of the communities Journey Bank calls home.