Business
Hancock profit rises, but dented by loan sale loss
Posted: Jan 24, 2013 5:24 PM
Updated: Jan 24, 2013 5:26 PM
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) Fourth-quarter profit rose for the parent of Hancock and Whitney banks as merger expenses eased, but it lost money on a loan sale.
Hancock Holding Co. posted profit Thursday of $47 million, or 54 cents per share. That's 147 percent above $19 million, or 22 cents per share, in 2011's fourth quarter.
That year-ago quarter, months after Hancock acquired New Orleans-based Whitney National Bank, included $40.2 million in merger costs. The just-ended quarter had no merger costs.
Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast 63 cents per share, on average.
Hancock lost $13.7 million 10 cents per share from selling bad loans at 2012's end.
Based in Gulfport, Miss., the $19.5 billion company operates Hancock Bank in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and Whitney Bank in Louisiana and Texas.
