BancorpSouth profits up 6 percent

Tupelo, Miss.-based BancorpSouth Inc. (NYSE: BXS), the holding company for BancorpSouth, reported $11.9 million in third-quarter net income, a 6 percent increase compared to profits of $11.3 million in the same quarter last year.

Earnings per diluted share were 14 cents for the quarter ended Sept. 30, a cent higher than a year ago, according to a news release.

BancorpSouth Chairman and CEO Aubrey Patterson said company earnings were positively affected by a $25.1 million reduction in provision for credit losses, compared to $54.9 million for the third quarter of 2010.

"While this reduction reflected continued improvement in our credit quality, we remain focused on working through our problem credits and reducing our nonperforming loans," Patterson said in the release.

Third quarter financial highlights:

• Nonperforming loans were $362.8 million, compared to $409.4 million in the same quarter of the previous year.
• Loans and leases, net of unearned incomes, were $9.1 billion as of Sept. 30, a 4.8 percent decrease compared to $9.5 billion at Sept. 30, 2010.
• Noninterest revenue was $62.1 million, and noninterest expense was $130.7 million.

As of Sept. 30, total assets were $13.2 billion and deposits were $11.1 billion.

In the five-county Springfield metropolitan statistical area, BancorpSouth ranked No. 6 in deposit market share. As of June 30, the company held 4.5 percent of the market share with $335.2 million in deposits across six branches in the MSA. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released the updated market share rankings Oct. 4.

BancorpSouth operates roughly 290 commercial banking, mortgage, insurance, trust and broker/dealer locations in Missouri and eight other states.

As of 10:18 a.m., the company's shares were trading at $9.90 apiece, compared to a 52-week range of $8.23 to $16.75.[[In-content Ad]]