Morgan Stanley Resumes Coverage on Hancock Holding

Morgan Stanley has published a report on Hancock Holding HBHC resuming coverage of the bank holding company. In the report, Morgan Stanley wrote, "In our view, the key near-term headwind to the stock will be a lack of loan growth. We estimate $1.3 billion of loans (12% of total) are in run-off, which could limit loan growth to just 0.4% per quarter in 2H11 and 1.8% Y/Y in 2012. However, long term, we expect Hancock to benefit from its faster-growing Gulf South footprint." Morgan Stanley rated Hancock Holding an Equal-weight with a price target of $37.00. Hancock Holding closed Tuesday at $28.99.