Thank you, and good afternoon. During today's call, we may make forward-looking statements.

We would like to remind everyone to carefully review the safe harbor language that was published with the earnings release and presentation and in the company's most recent 10-Ks and 10-Q, including the risks and uncertainties identified therein. You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statements made by Hancock Whitney, speak only as of the date on which they were made.

As everyone understands, current economic environment is rapidly evolving and changing. Hancock Whitney's ability to accurately project results or predict the effects of future plans or strategies or predict market or economic developments is inherently limited.

We believe that the expectations reflected or implied by any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, but are not guarantees of performance or results. And our actual results and performance could differ materially from those set in our forward-looking statements.

Hancock Whitney undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Some of the remarks contain non GAAP financial measures.

You can find reconciliations to the comparable GAAP measures in our earnings release and the financial tables. The presentation slides included in our 8 are also posted with the conference call webcast link on the Investor Relations website.

We will reference some of these slides in today's call. Participating in today's call are John Hairston, President and CEO Michael Achary, CFO Christopher S.

Zaylaca, Chief Credit Officer, and Shane Loper, Chief Operating Officer. I will now turn the call over to John Hairston.

Thank you, Ashleigh, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. The second quarter of 26 was another strong quarter of profitability efficiency and return of capital to shareholders.

We were pleased to add solid balance sheet growth on both sides of the ledger to an already excellent quarter. Compared to the same period a year ago, we were pleased to see EPS improvement of 13%.

PPNR growth of 6%, a sixth straight quarter of improved commercial criticized loans, 5% growth in loans, and 2% growth in total deposits. We were pleased to welcome another 15 net new bankers in the second quarter bringing our total for the year to 42 against our annual goal of 50.

Focusing on the second quarter, on a linked quarter annualized basis, loans grew 10% and deposits 8%. As shown on Slide 9 of our investor deck, loan production was strong and line utilization improved.

Growth was spread across every line of business excepting mortgage. Our guidance for the full year remains unchanged at mid single digit growth.

For deposits, the 8% annualized growth was related to an increase in interest bearing money market accounts of 786 million. Partially offset by a slight decline in CD balances from maturities in the quarter.

Have updated our guidance for deposits from low single to mid single digit growth for the year. Profitability, efficiency and returns continue to perform very well, with a 1.42% ROA, an efficiency ratio of 55.3%, and an ROTCE of 14.9%.

Top line revenue continued to cover significant offensive reinvestment and net interest margin improved modestly while substantially funding loan growth with core deposits. Expenses were well managed as nearly all our expense growth was due to the full quarter impact of robust banker additions in Q1, and merit increases to our overall team in April.

We were pleased to secure regulatory and shareholder approval in July for the 1 Florida Bank transaction with an expected closing date of August 1st. Mike will add additional comments in his remarks, but I will note we have updated our guidance on page 20 to provide fiscal year 26 outlook both excluding and including 1 Florida.

In both cases, the second half of 26 guidance reflects a continuation of high profitability, strong capital and continuing growth. Regarding capital deployment, our stated priorities remain in capitalizing a growing balance sheet supporting dividends, and completing the current 5% authorization by the end of this year.

We are very pleased here at halftime of 2026 to see very solid performance and growth in alignment with our goals. We are very excited to welcome our new colleagues and clients from 1 Florida in only 10 days augmenting our profitability and growth story.

With that, I will invite Mike to add additional comments.

Thanks, John, and good afternoon, everyone. As John said at the onset, the company's performance in the second quarter was excellent.

Net income for the quarter was $127 million, or $1.55 per share compared to adjusted net income of $125 million or $1.52 per share in the first quarter. PPNR for the company was up 3% from the prior quarter to $178 million.

Expressed as a return on average assets, this continues to be a solid 1.99%. Net interest income increased 3% this quarter.

Our fee income business continues to perform remarkably well, and expenses are up but remained well controlled. Fee income for the company was up $2.3 million or 2% adjusted for the net loss on the bond portfolio restructuring last quarter.

The increase was driven by higher activity in our investment and annuity income and insurance as well as our trust business. These increases were offset by a decrease in our syndication fees and SBIC income which can be somewhat unpredictable from quarter to quarter.

Expenses remain well controlled up 2% from the prior quarter and were primarily related to our annual merit increases and the impact of our new hires during the first half of 26. As expected, our net interest margin was up this quarter.

Albeit at a slightly slower pace with a 1 basis point increase from 3.55% to 3.56%. Our earning asset yield was up 2 basis points and our cost of funds was up 1 basis point.

In addition, our level of average earning assets were up $570 million from last quarter. Within higher earning asset yield, we benefited from higher yield on the bond portfolio and higher average earning asset levels.

Partially offset by lower loan yields. Within our total cost of funds, unfavorable other borrowing balances and rates partially offset by a lower cost of deposits.

As expected, the yield on the bond portfolio was up 12 basis points to 3.35%. Related to a full quarter's impact of the first quarter restructuring transaction but also due to reinvestment of principal cash flows during the quarter.

Loan yields were down 2 basis points, mostly due to the impact of a 12-basis point quarter over quarter drop in new loan rates. But this was partially offset by a healthy increase in average loans of $374 million linked quarter.

Our cost of deposits was down 4 basis points to 1.43% for the quarter. Due mostly to a lower rate on maturing CDs.

We did increase promotional rate pricing on our interest bearing transaction deposits and certain CD maturity buckets. Which drove an increase in our end of period balances on those deposits.

For the second half of 26, we do expect the benefit from repricing maturing CDs will largely come to an end as new CD rates will likely be higher. Turning to asset quality.

Our criticized commercial loans improve for the sixth consecutive quarter decreasing $30 million to $492 million Nonaccrual loans increased $1 million to $114 million Net charge offs came in at 16 basis points down from the prior quarter's 19 basis points. Our loan loss reserves are solid at 1.42% of loans.

We continue to expect net charge offs to average loans will come in at between 15 and 25 basis points for the full year 2026. Finally, in Slide 20 of the earnings deck, you will see our forward guidance for the remainder of 2026.

For guidance excluding OFB, will see a number of revisions to our guidance mostly moving to the upper end of our previous ranges. For guidance including OFB, we expect loans and deposits to be up low double digits net interest income up between 8% to 9%, fee income up between 6% to 7%, operating expenses up between 7.5% and 8.5%, and finally, PPNR up between 7% to 8%.

These expectations do not include any meaningful revenue synergies from the acquisition. Such as expanding wealth products and services to OFB clients.

Also, the cost savings will be fully realized by the time we enter 2027, and has mentioned we anticipate a closing date of August 1st. As we look forward to the second half of this year, we remain encouraged by the momentum across our franchise.

While the operating environment continues to present challenges, our solid balance sheet strong customer relationships, and disciplined execution positions us well to deliver on objectives, for the remainder of this year and going forward. I will now turn the call back to John.

Thank you, Mike. Let's open the call for questions.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions.

Just wanted to start on loan growth. Obviously, a very solid quarter, but I think what struck me was the almost 20% increase in quarter over quarter production, yet you kind of reiterated the stand alone outlook for the year, which would imply maybe a bit of a slowdown to some degree.

Is that just conservatism? Or is it competition where you are maybe seeing a little bit more pressure?

Just looking to get a little more color on puts and takes. Thanks.

Shane, would you like to take that question?

Sure. And Michael, maybe give you a little bit broader context.

You know, when we think about our clients, you know, they are still looking at the way that they are approaching their business as you know, broadly stable. Majority of them are indicating, you know, kind of generally stable performance or steady performance with an outlook that is, optimistic.

But they are being really cautious. So you know, right now, there is a lot of credit supply for a limited demand.

And, you know, that is really where the competition is kind of creeping in. We feel like, you know, that we did a great job with production this quarter.

You know, loan growth of $588 million. We produced $1.5 billion in loans.

that is up from $1.2 billion in the first quarter and really had strength in all of our segments, business Banking, Commercial, Middle Market, Consumer performed well and CRE has continuing to perform well. You know, a lot of net growth supported with new originations, line fundings were up.

Slightly this quarter. And then we saw normalized pay down and payoff activity.

So I really look at our growth for the quarter as really high quality. Spread across all of our segments and geographies.

Pricing, I know you will probably ask about pricing. Pricing continues to be highly competitive.

We are focused and disciplined in our pricing. But, really, you know, just trying to step up and match off against the competition without giving too much so we can continue to grow the balance sheet.

Yeah. And Michael, this is John.

I will add to Shane's comments. it is it is probably good to look at the first half of the year as a body of work and the second half as another body of work.

And while, the numbers for Q2 certainly were, were outstanding, 1 of our better quarters we have had in several years, A lot of that work did happen in Q1 and closed in early Q2. Hence, the average balance has increased just for second quarter a little bit better.

Than I have in some quarters where we just ended real well. Think if you look at the second half of the year, I would not say we are being conservative.

I think what Shane's telling you is exactly what we expect. But we do have to remember in the face of potential rate increases, and inflation to follow, it may be well behaved, but certainly, there are macro conditions that could cause a tough We could see some dampening of appetite, so we want to be realistic in our guide.

To a mid-singles for the year.

Alright. Sorry about that.

I could not get off mute. Okay.

Maybe just as a follow-up. Mike, maybe if you can talk about some of the deposit competition and what you are seeing there.

I know Shane touched on the loan side looks like the NIB mix did tick down 60 or 70 basis points Q on Q. Can you just talk about the ongoing ability to fund loan growth and just competitive trends in and around your markets?

Thanks.

Sure. I would be glad to, Michael.

So I think the best way to describe the deposit pricing environment is absolutely it is competitive, but at least in our markets, it is also pretty rational. And by that, I mean, you know, we are in an environment now where, you know, there are banks that are experiencing more demand for loans.

And so people certainly like to fund loan growth with deposit growth, and we are no different. So I think you are seeing you know, the elevation in deposit costs that have been talked about for the past couple of months, really the past couple of quarters.

So it is certainly here now. And for us, you know, 1 of the things that we are we are most pleased with about the quarter was not only the arrival of pretty significant organic balance sheet growth But the fact that we are able to fund that growth really dollar for dollar with deposits You know?

So that is that really is what we are trying to achieve. And as we think about the second half of the year, you know, the plan is to continue to do that.

So while you know, you alluded to a little bit of a step down maybe in the level of loan growth, for the second half of the year. You probably should also note that there is a little bit of a step up in deposit growth.

For the second half of the year. So I think we are you will see us land at the end of the year is with loan growth pretty much matched off dollar for dollar with deposit growth.

That is exactly the way we would like to manage our balance sheet now You know, as well as going forward. So hopefully, that was helpful.

Yep. Very helpful.

I will step back now. Thanks for taking my questions.

Thanks. Just want to follow up on just deposit pricing.

You talked about an increase in deposit growth at the end of the quarter just from some promotional interest bearing transactions. Can you talk about the cost around what that looks like?

And as we grow your interest bearing transaction account, where do you know outside of any rate, changes in rates, where do you think that trends to with this promotional deposit coming in there?

Yeah. Sure.

I would sure be glad to, Catherine. So again, if you look at the second quarter, a little bit of an unusual situation where most of the deposit growth was really back ended toward the end of the second quarter.

So, you know, we had the increase in end of period deposits of about $550 million But the average for the quarter was actually down. about $50 million or so.

So I think going forward in the second half of the year, you know, you will see that end of period growth pretty should match pretty good the average growth you know, in the third quarter. What we did in the second quarter is we began to really focus on bringing in deposits And there were a couple of promotional things that we did.

So we have an 11-month CD at 3.85%. That we had been offering in Florida and Texas that we decided to expand that to kind of the core of the franchise, so Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

And that proved to be pretty successful. We also have a money market offering at 3.75%.

For some existing customers and then a 4% money market for new customers. So in addition to that, we are offering a promotional CD in Orlando related to OFB.

So those are the promotional deposit pricing offerings that we have in place. And, again, those were all pretty successful.

In the second half of the second quarter, and we think they will be pretty successful going forward as well.

Right. So it is fair to say is that did you get the full impact of that?

Is it fair to say we are at a bottom for deposit cost and so that will just start to increase as we move to the back half of the year.

Yeah. I think so.

I think as we look at the second half of the year, yeah. I think as we look at the second half of the year, you will see NII continue to grow.

May not grow as much as it did in the second quarter, but it certainly will grow in the second half of the year. I think our NIM will be flat to slightly up And, you know, certainly, know, we will see an increase in deposit costs as well as our cost of funds.

So in the second half of the year, our cost of deposits could be up around 10 basis points or so. And that is from the second quarter through fourth quarter.

We will continue to reprice bonds and fixed rate loans higher. that is a big obvious tailwind that we have.

And then certainly, the biggest tailwind will be the continuation of organic balance sheet growth in the second half of the year. So loans growing at mid single digits.

Along with deposits. If I might just 1 more thing on the margin just to tie it together.

If I look at loan yield, those were flat or actually down a few basis points linked quarter. Right.

In your new in your new loan yield, are coming in. It looks like 6.04%.

So still higher than that 5.60% average, but, you that is come down a lot over the past couple of quarters. So do we do you still think we are in an environment where we can move that 5.60% higher over the back half of the year?

Yeah. I think with respect to the loan yield, what you will see is you know, some modest, increase.

We got a nice head start in July. With SOFR being up about 4 basis points coming into the month.

So that will certainly be a little bit of a tailwind. But if we look at our loan yield over the second half of the year, I do think we will see a little bit of an increase, call it, you know, 4 to 5 basis points maybe.

Okay. Great.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Hey. Good afternoon.

Just want to follow along with Catherine's line of questioning on the loan yields. Specifically, I wanted to ask about middle market C and I.

Maybe whether there is been any kind of abatement in competition in that space, or is it still pretty tight?

Hey, this is Shane. it is very tight.

You know, as I was talking to with Michael, you know, the clients are really you know, managing pretty well through the uncertainty. There is a pretty fair amount of, loan demand, but there is a much, much higher level of supply.

So, you know, to get those quality deals, and grow responsibly, it is very tough right now in terms of pricing. We have improved our pricing model.

And are talking with each 1 of our bankers, ensuring that, you know, we are getting the best pricing that we can get, we are also trying to win the deals to make sure that we are growing the balance sheet. And we are doing it in a high quality manner.

But it is very tough right now. Bankers doing a great job.

Calling and saving deals that we currently already have on the books. And bringing on new deals.

Got it. Appreciate that.

And just switching gears, noninterest income, it looks like you revised the guide up a bit. Is there a particular component driving better expectations there, whether it is trust or the investment annuity insurance line?

Or is it just kind of what you have seen so far this year? Just curious maybe what you are seeing that led you to increase that a little bit.

Yeah. We continue to be very proud of the wealth management, execution and progress that they are making.

Know, both in the broker dealer and across the, trust platforms. Know, we do have a little bit of, tailwind from the Sable deal from last year.

But overall, the penetration into the current client book and new business won is performing very well and really have to give kudos to the to the wealth management team. You know, card and merchant services has always been a pretty strong suit for us, and that continues to perform well.

And, you know, when we look secondary mortgage, it is pretty much in line with expectations. Like to see more syndication fees as we move forward in I know that team's working on that hard as we go forward.

But you know, the wealth management is, really performing, and I think that is a result of the investments we have made really over the last 5 to 8 years in just skills and process and tools and capabilities.

Understood. that is helpful.

Thanks for taking my questions.

You bet. Thanks for asking.

Yeah. Good afternoon.

Thanks for the time here. I am curious briefly, the changes in the CECL methodology you mentioned in the presentation, can you give us any additional color there on what kind of precipitated that, if that was some of Moody's just worsening their the scenarios overall, or what kind of drove that change?

Yes, Steven. This is this is Mike.

I will start, and certainly, Christopher can offer some color if he would like to. But really, what we saw with these scenarios was the baseline becoming more conservative than it was before.

I think if you go back a quarter or so, it was pretty apparent that the baseline scenario probably fully include maybe the impact of what is going on in The Middle East. Certainly, now it does.

So we felt it was appropriate to go ahead and add a little bit more emphasis to the baseline. And to round things out, obviously, to the slow growth scenario.

So we went from you know, 40/60 to 50/50. it is really just as simple as that.

Got it. Very helpful.

Okay. And just on the pace of hiring, obviously, you are getting very close to that 50 person goal.

Already here halfway through the year, what have you. You know, what sort of upside to that number could there be?

And would you extend much further beyond that 50 person headcount if it was available even if it meant, you know, maybe the efficiency ratio going a tick higher in the near term How would we think about the push pull there on investment timing?

Hey. This is Shane.

Thanks for the question. This is a bright spot.

I mean, we have had great success this year. at 42 against our goal of 50 overall.

We feel very confident in the 50. And I think, you know, as we look forward, we will continue to be focused on, you know, opportunities that come up.

Our bankers are performing as we expected. That momentum at flywheel is beginning to build.

We are seeing really good production to, I think, 26% of the growth for the quarter was out of new bankers that we have hired. So really beginning to see the momentum take place.

Very proud of the leadership team that is been executing this, recruiting, you know, that started back in the fourth quarter of 25, really working on you know, bringing new bankers to the company. So feel good about the 50, and we will look forward to opportunities that present themselves.

Okay. And just I mean, do you think I mean, is there an impediment to going much beyond that just from expense perspective?

Would you want to space it out kind of more ratably? Or just opportunistic irrespective of the timing?

if good people come to us. Yeah.

I do not think we have a specific number, but we know what it costs to bring on a new banker and the time that it takes for them to, get accretive, and we feel like we have got room to add, you know, the ones that we need to add.

And, Steven, you will note that we did increase the guidance around operating expenses excluding OFB. And I think some of that was a little bit of a nod to the potential that we could add a few more people potentially.

Great. This is John.

I appreciate that.

Hey. Good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for the questions. I wanted just to talk about the franchise kind of post the 1 Florida deal.

And just see if there were thoughts for maybe additional expansion in Florida. And then post you, you know, bulking up in Orlando, is the way to think about the organic growth level of the franchise from here, have we moved that up several percent?

With, some of the recent hires in Texas and Florida? Or just any thoughts on how you guys do yourself as in terms of a growth company going forward?

Yeah. Thanks for the question.

This is John. I will start, and the team can jump in there if they want to add more color.

But obviously, the initial focus, with the August 1st close is in welcoming that new book of clients and those new team members, getting them comfortable over the course of the next several months as we focus on integration. And that will be mid to late Q4 to get that integration completely wrapped up.

So really the back half of the year in terms of the expanded market in Orlando is about acclimating the team and getting people comfortable and then as we move into 2027, you know, we will be able to talk a little bit about what expectations are in Orlando moving forward. A number of the team members there are quite familiar with surrounding markets.

We have obviously shared, I think, a call or 2 past our desire to build up a bigger book in Jacksonville. But, really, it is a little early to share kind of what that plan may be.

And, frankly, as soon as we get the integration done, and in time for the January call, I think we will be able to address that more. What I can share is that, you know, several years ago, as we talked about, I guess, several big 2 years ago, we talked about the pivot to growth.

It was a very deliberate intent to hire talent in core markets where it became available to us. To find good experienced, team members to add, and that we have been successful doing that.

But to really double down and adding folks in markets that we did not have as big a presence but had a very high organic growth rate expectation. that is really where the focus in Texas and Florida came from.

And so as we move into the next couple of years, I think we will be in position to talk a little bit more around what the macro looks like and how, we might be able to do a little better over time. But at this point in time, you know, we are really trying to sell or share the mid single digit expected compounded annual growth rate as our target.

And then if the flywheel Shane mentions yields something better than that, you know, we will we will talk about that when we when we get there. Our focus right now is acclimating our new team and our clients.

Covering loan growth the back half of this year with deposits, turning DDAs into a little bit better growth trajectory As I can as quickly as I can. Okay.

that is helpful, John.

And then the other question I had was around capital and I think you bought back over 700 thousand shares this quarter. You know, with the existing 2 million shares remaining, would do you expect to be as active in the back half of the year as you were in the second quarter?

Yes, Brett. This is Mike.

So the intent right now is to exhaust the buyback authority. So we have the 5% in place for this year.

We have the 2 million shares remaining. So, again, the thought is now that we will exhaust that authority you know, over the course of the second half of the year, probably on kind of a pro rata basis between the third and fourth quarter.

And then as far as next year, you know, we will kind of cross that bridge when we come to it. Certainly, I think it is likely that we will have some authority in place next year.

that is certainly up to the board. The level is something we will talk about when we get there, though.

Okay. Great.

Appreciate the color, guys.

You bet. Thank you for the questions.

Yeah. Great.

Thanks. Good afternoon, guys.

So 1 more on NIM. Apologies.

But just wondering how much purchase accounting is in this guide here.

Well, the guide, excluding OFB, which is again for flat to slightly up, you know, obviously does not include any of the purchase accounting related to OFB. Know?

And honestly, Casey, I mean, it is not a significant number. So it really is not gonna move the needle very much at all.

The guidance including OFB, would be really the same.

Okay. Alright.

So the no. I mean okay.

Gotcha. Yeah.

Just alright. And then just yeah.

Okay. Then just touching on capital management.

So sounds like you are you guys are gonna actually on the authorization this year. Think you guys talked about rebuilding capital to pre OFB levels Just wondering the time line around that.

And what that means for share buybacks in 2027 and yeah, the share buyback appetite post 2026.

Yeah. So, obviously, you can see where our capital ratios are at 36, and we also disclosed you know, where we think they will be once we fold in OFD in August.

So our TCE will be down about 120 basis points common tier 1. We will be down around 170 or so.

Really, for the back half of the year, those ratios probably will not change a whole lot that is inclusive of the organic balance sheet growth that referred to that is part of our guidance, and it also includes the buybacks. So this notion of kind of rebuilding capital, which is not so much rebuilding capital, it is really just kind of disclosing that it would take us about 8 quarters all things equal, for our capital ratios to kinda get back to pre deal levels.

It does not mean that is the intent of what we plan on doing. You know, that was really just a data point, if you will.

You know, we feel very comfortable with you know, TCE in the 9% range, common Tier 1 you know, somewhere around the 12% range. So if we did not do the buybacks in the second half of this year, we would essentially be at those data points.

That I just mentioned. So going forward, again, and not to make this overly complex, but going forward, we are planning on exhausting the buyback authority And then in 2027, again, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, that is something we will we will disclose when we get there.

Thank you.

Okay. You are welcome.

Approval, from 1 Florida. Does that, make it interesting to consider additional M&A or would you not surprised by how quickly this happened?

I do not think we were surprised by how quickly it happened. I mean, that is pretty much the pace that transactions have been approved by the regulatory bodies that we necessarily need approval from of late.

And we expected a pretty rapid approval. So I think we were on pretty much the timeline we expected.

And guided to, I do not know if we talked about in the initial disclosure what our expectations were on integration. But that looks like it is gonna be mid to maybe latter part of Q4.

So a pretty rapid integration as well. So I think it is fair to say, Mike, would you agree with pretty much the timeline's exactly what we thought it was expected to be.

Yeah. Very much so.

I think in this environment where you know, the regulatory, focus seems to be more accommodative to these types of transactions. You know, certainly not surprised that we were able to do this pretty quickly.

It was an extremely you know, clean transaction. A rather small deal.

So, again, the quick approval and timeline to integration was something that we you know, certainly planned for. So no surprises there.

And, Mike, just to reiterate what you said earlier, I think, that you will have the cost takeouts out by the end of the fourth quarter. So you start 2027 with those behind you.

that is correct. So when we start the new year, the cost saves will be fully reflected.

Great. Deal.

Thanks for hosting us today. I appreciate it.

Okay. You bet.

Thank you for the questions.

Okay. Thank you, Jay, for moderating the call.

Thanks, everyone, for your attention and time, and we look forward to seeing you on the road very soon.