J.P. Morgan Examines BXS 1Q Results

J.P. Morgan reports that BancorpSouth, Inc. BXS has slipped back into the red, “with core loss driven by provision increase.” “Following two consecutive quarters of profitability, BXS slipped back into the red in 1Q, reporting a loss of $0.01, or ($0.03) excluding a $2.5 million FV adjustment to the MSR,” J.P. Morgan writes. “Using a normalized tax rate, run-rate EPS appear to be in the ($0.07) range, which is well below our $0.06 forecast and consensus of $0.09. The driver of the wide earnings miss was provision expense being reported $11.6 million above forecast, as well as expenses reported nearly $6 million higher than forecast, only partially offset by revenues coming in better than expected on a 10 bps expansion in the NIM. “The quarter marked a slippage in credit at a time when most banks are reporting strong improvement, in tandem with PTPP income declining.” BancorpSouth closed Monday at $15.32.