While M&A and conversion expenses took a few bites out of Blue Hills Bancorp’s bottom line last year, the company ended 2014 on an optimistic note, lauding its loan growth, acquisition of Nantucket Bank and mutual-to-stock conversion in its announcement of its fourth quarter earnings.

The holding company for Blue Hills Bank posted $2.7 million in net income for the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $2.9 million in the third quarter and a loss of $615,000 in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The fourth quarter also represented Blue Hills Bancorp’s first full quarter as a publicly traded company, and it posted diluted earnings per share of 10 cents.

"In the years to come, we will all look back at 2014 as the most important and transformative year in the history of the company,” President and CEO William Parent said in a statement. “Our stock offering, which was completed in July and drew strong demand from depositors and employees, provides us with the capital needed to execute on our plan of becoming a diversified full service community bank."

During its initial public offering, Blue Hills sold 27.8 million shares of common stock, the maximum of its offering range, representing gross proceeds of $277.7 million.

Blue Hills Bancorp also completed its acquisition of Nantucket Bank in January last year, which added $100 million of commercial real estate and home equity loans to its balance sheet, and opened a new branch office in Milton in October.

Net income for the full year totaled $4.6 million, versus $2.4 million in 2013. Net interest and dividend income totaled $12.6 million in the fourth quarter, representing a 10 percent increase from $11.4 million in the third quarter and a 55 percent increase from the year-ago period. The net interest margin also increased 40 basis points to 3.07 percent over the year-ago period.

Noninterest expense totaled $10.7 million in the fourth quarter compared with $17.7 million in the third quarter. The third quarter results, however, included a $7 million expense related to the company’s funding of a new charitable foundation in connection with its mutual-to-stock conversion, $51,000 of costs associated with the conversion and $2,000 of one-time costs associated with its Nantucket Bank acquisition. Excluding those three items, the company estimated noninterest expense increased $47,000, or less than 1 percent, from the third quarter.

Total assets increased $414 million, or 32 percent, to $1.7 billion at year’s end. Over that time frame, the company increased loans 48 percent to $1.1 billion, and the January 2014 acquisition of Nantucket Bank.