Well-known in Massachusetts for its tremendous growth in recent years, Belmont Savings Bank is now being recognized as one of the best performing community banks in the country.

Sandler O’Neill, a full-service investment banking, has named Belmont Savings Bank to its Sm-All Star Award Class of 2017 for banks with a market-cap below $2.5 billion that demonstrate exceptional growth, profitability, credit quality and capital strength.

Belmont Savings Bank was the sole bank in Massachusetts to make the list and was one of 29 banks selected nationally out of a total of 404 publicly traded banks that applied.

“It was right out of the blue, I must say,” Bob Mahoney, president and CEO of Belmont Savings Bank, told Banker & Tradesman. “I am extremely proud of the whole team. We are all on cloud nine.”

The banks selected by Sandler O’Neill fell into an elite group, boasting a median earnings per share growth rate of 27 percent, annual median loan growth of 22 percent and annual median deposit growth of 19 percent.

Belmont Savings Bank surpassed the median in several categories, with an earnings per share growth rate of 47.6 percent and loan growth of 22.4 percent. The bank also grew deposits by 16.3 percent and had a return on average equity of 8.8 percent, along with strong credit quality.

Overall, Belmont Savings Bank has grown total assets from just over $500 million in 2010, the year Mahoney took the reins, to $2.37 billion in assets at the end of the second quarter of this year.

While many community banks have grown by opening lots of new branches or making acquisitions, Belmont Savings Bank has stood firm with six branches, opening three since 2010, with the last one opening in 2013.

Mahoney attributes the success to his loan team, as well as the bank’s focus on deposit-rich sectors.

“On the loan side, we have a very strong mortgage operation for residential, with highly-commissioned people bringing in loans at a high clip,” he said. “We also have the best team of commercial lenders around.”

Mahoney said the commercial team, many of whom he worked with during his tenure at Citizens Bank, have been able to draw on old relationships from their time at the bank.

On the deposit side, he said by focusing on deposit-rich sectors like universities, who tend to have a lot of money when tuition starts to roll in, the bank has been able to bring in deposits in increments between $2 and $5 million.

Belmont Savings Bank is also an attractive option for clients because it is part of the Depositors Insurance Fund, a private, industry-sponsored insurance fund that insures all deposits above the $250,000 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. limits at Massachusetts-chartered savings banks.

Although the award is a big accomplishment, Mahoney has no intention of slowing down.

He said the bank is reviewing all the Sm-All Star winners to identify common themes and trends among the group, and use the information to try and stay in the award group in future years.

As for the Massachusetts market, Mahoney still sees plenty of growth potential.

“We want to be careful and not make bad loans so we need to be cautious about it,” he said. “But Massachusetts is a very, very good banking market. It’s dense; it’s wealthy; there is a lot of business, a lot of consumers and the market is still dominated by four big banks. It’s a good vineyard to go shopping in.”