Hancock Whitney Corporation

Investor Relations Manager, you may begin.

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-K 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, the 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 forth 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 most comparable GAAP measures in our earnings release and financial tables. The presentation slides included in our AK 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 Harriston, President and CEO, Mike Ackery, CFO, and Chris Saluca, Chief Credit Officer. I will now turn the call over to John Harriston.

Thank you, Kathryn, and thanks everyone for joining us this afternoon. We are pleased to report another quarter of high-performing profitability and continued capital growth, a very strong start to 2025. We achieved an impressive 1.41% ROA, grew fee income, enjoyed continued NEM expansion, and ended the quarter with total risk-based capital of 16.39%. NEM expanded as we were able to control funding costs and mix that more than offset the impact of lower loan yields and lower average earning assets. We had another quarter of strong fee income with growth across most categories. Expenses remained well controlled with only a 1% increase this quarter. We've updated our guidance to reflect the impact of the Sable Trust transaction and now anticipate fee income to be up between 9% and 10% year over year. Our expectations for expense growth remain unchanged between 4% and 5% higher year over year. Loans were down $201 million due to higher payoffs on large health care and commercial non-real estate loans offsetting strong production. We have updated our guidance this quarter and expect loans will grow low single digits in 2025, with most of the growth coming in the second half of the year. The change in guidance accounts for uncertainty reflected in current client sentiment. We remain focused on more granular, full-relationship loans with the goal of achieving more favorable loan yields and relationship revenue. Deposits were down $298 million, driven primarily by the seasonal public funds outflows. For the second quarter in a row, our DDA balance has actually increased, and our DDA mix is stable at 36%. Interest-bearing transaction accounts increased due to our competitive product offerings, and retail CDs declined due to the reduction of promo rates, which helped control deposit costs. We continued to return capital to investors by repurchasing 350,000 shares of common stock this quarter. We also increased our common stock dividend to 45 cents per share, a cumulative increase of 50% from this time last year. Even after returning capital, we had strong growth in all of our regulatory capital metrics due to excellent profitability, ending the quarter with a common equity tier one ratio of 14.51%, and tangible common equity ratio of 10.01%. Last quarter on our call, we shared our plan to pivot to growth, both organically and inorganically, through the acquisition of Sable Trust Company. We continue to execute hiring plans with four additional bankers and have selected four new locations of five planned in the northern area of the Dallas MSA. The Sable transaction is expected to close on May 2nd. We look forward to welcoming Sable clients and associates to Hancock Whitney and for the opportunity to expand our best-in-class regional banking services in the greater Tampa and Orlando areas. Despite current market volatility, we remain optimistic for our growth prospects, particularly in the second half of the year. We are closely monitoring macroeconomic trends and indicators, including both nationally and within our own footprint. While the environment remains dynamic, our ample liquidity, solid allowance for credit losses of 1.49%, and strong capital keep us well positioned to navigate challenges and support our clients in any economy. With that, I'll invite Mike to add additional comments.