Piper Jaffray reiterated a Neutral rating on Hancock Holding (NASDAQ: HBHC), and raised the price target to $29.00 (from $27.50), following the company's 2Q earnings report. Operating EPS of $0.58 easily surpassed the Street's EPS of $0.44.

Analyst Peyton Green commented, "EPS of $0.59 in 2Q16 should provide a bounce in HBHC's shares given the strong operating leverage posted. We are raising our operating 2016E EPS to $1.73 (+$0.23), 2017E EPS to $2.23 (+$0.03), and introducing 2018E EPS of $2.45. Energy loan credit and payoff dynamics could cause volatility in EPS of $0.54 in 3Q16E and $0.52 in 4Q16E, despite a trend of improving operating leverage. Our quarterly provision estimate of $21M could vary materially (+or-) in 2H16E. We are raising our target to $29 (+$1.50), or 13x (+0.5x) 2017E EPS. The higher P/E is a discount to the average 5Y FY1 P/E of 14.1x, which is reasonable given energy exposure/credit quality, in our view."

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Shares of Hancock Holding closed at $27.81 yesterday.