**Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Written by Leslie Turk
Teche reports record earnings for nine-month period**
Earnings at Teche Holding Company (Amex: TSH) for the nine month period ended June 30 amounted to $5.25 million, a record $2.49 per diluted share, compared to $5.15 million, or $2.42 per diluted share, for the same period in fiscal year 2009. The earnings represent an increase of $0.07 per diluted share, or 2.9 percent.
**Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Written by Leslie Turk
Teche reports record earnings for nine-month period**
Earnings at Teche Holding Company (Amex: TSH) for the nine month period ended June 30 amounted to $5.25 million, a record $2.49 per diluted share, compared to $5.15 million, or $2.42 per diluted share, for the same period in fiscal year 2009. The earnings represent an increase of $0.07 per diluted share, or 2.9 percent.
Earnings for the quarter ended June 30 amounted to $1.82 million, or $0.87 per diluted share, compared to $1.73 million, or $0.80 per diluted share, for the same quarter in fiscal 2009. That's an increase of $0.07 per diluted share, or 8.8 percent.
Home Bank's second quarter earnings up
Home Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: HBCP), the parent company for Home Bank, announced net income of $1.5 million for the second quarter of 2010, an increase of $621,000, or 74 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2010 and an increase of $30,000, or 2 percent, compared to the second quarter of 2009. Net income for the first and second quarters of 2010 includes acquisition-related costs of $378,000 and $236,000, respectively. Excluding the impact of acquisition-related costs, net income increased $764,000, or 71 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2010 and $408,000, or 28 percent, compared to the second quarter of 2009. Diluted earnings per share were $0.19 for the second quarter of 2010, an increase of 73 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010 and an increase of 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2009. Excluding the impact of acquisition-related costs, diluted earnings per share were $0.24 for the second quarter of 2010, an increase of 71 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010 and an increase of 33 percent compared to the second quarter of 2009.
The company also announced that its board of directors approved a new program to repurchase up to 424,027 shares, or approximately 5 percent, of its outstanding common stock.
Home Bancorp completed a previously announced repurchase program during the second quarter of 2010, acquiring 446,344 shares of the its common stock at an average price of $12.85 per share.
"The strength of our results was driven by the incremental earnings created by our Northshore acquisition and robust core deposit growth," says President and CEO John W. Bordelon. In mid-July, Home Bank completed the conversion of Statewide Bank's loan and deposit accounts to its operating system. In March it entered into an agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to purchase Statewide Bank, a full-service community bank headquartered in Covington. Statewide also had banking offices in Madisonville, Mandeville, Abita Springs, Slidell and Folsom. Home Bank acquired approximately $225 million of assets, including $150 million of loans (before loan discounts), and assumed approximately $225 million in deposits and certain other liabilities.
**MidSouth Bank's quarterly earnings up from last year
**
Second quarter net earnings at MidSouth Bancorp Inc. (NYSE Amex: MSL) increased 113 percent, to $951,000, compared to net earnings of $446,000 for the second quarter of 2009. Earnings were positively impacted by a $600,000 decrease in the provision for loan losses, which offset a $326,000 increase in tax expense, the bank announced.
The quarterly earnings, however, fell 16.3 percent when compared to $1.14 million in net earnings for this year's first quarter. Diluted earnings for the second quarter of 2010 were $0.10 per common share, an increase of 42.9 percent from $0.07 per common share reported for the second quarter of 2009, and a decrease of 16.7 percent from $0.12 per common share reported for the first quarter of 2010.
MidSouth Bank also announced that it will pay a 7-cent cash dividend on its common stock. The dividend will be paid on Oct. 1 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 16.
Real estate loans pull Whitney's earnings down
Still plagued by defaults on real estate loans, mostly in its Florida and Alabama markets, Whitney Holding Corporation (Nasdaq:WTNY) reported a net loss of $18 million for the second quarter of 2010 compared to net losses of $6.3 million and $21.3 million, respectively, in the first quarter of 2010 and in the second quarter of 2009. Including the $4.1 million dividend paid each quarter to the U.S. Treasury on the preferred stock issued under TARP, the loss per diluted common share was $.23 for the second quarter of 2010, $.11 for the first quarter of 2010 and $.38 for the second quarter of 2009.
"We are disappointed that the economy remained sluggish during the second quarter and did not show the signs of improvement we were expecting," says John C. Hope III, Whitney's chairman and CEO. "It has become increasingly difficult to predict the timing of a solid economic recovery, and this, coupled with the impact the Gulf oil spill appears to be having on business activity in our markets, has tempered our optimism for the remainder of 2010."
Hope noted that the company's long-term earnings capacity, the underlying strengths of its franchise and its capital position all remain strong.