Hancock Holding Co., of Gulfport, Miss., said its first-quarter earnings rose 43% from the same quarter last year, of $22 million.
Diluted earnings per share rose 43%, to 67 cents, which beat the average of analysts' expectations by 6 cents.
The $6 billion-asset Hancock said Thursday that it had $597,000 of chargeoffs related to Hurricane Katrina. Even with those chargeoffs, its overall credit quality improved - it had $108,000 of recoveries, as opposed to $3.1 million of chargeoffs in the fourth quarter and $2.3 million in the first quarter of last year.
Net interest income rose 27%, to $58.3 million. Hancock attributed the increase to growth in deposits and assets. Noninterest income rose 11%, to $25 million, primarily because of insurance fees.
