Lincoln Bancorp Reports 1st-Quarter Profit Doubled

Lincoln Bancorp, the Encino-based parent of Lincoln National Bank, said its first-quarter profit doubled from a year earlier on a 45% gain in assets.

Lincoln said net income in the quarter ended March 31 jumped to $616,561, or 23 cents a share, from $308,144, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier. The per-share results were adjusted to reflect the company’s 5% stock dividend in May and Lincoln’s sale of 1 million additional shares in June.

Lincoln noted that its higher profit came despite a sharp drop in its earnings from trading securities, which fell to $27,617 from $55,700 a year earlier. But Lincoln’s net interest income--the difference between the interest it earns on loans and the interest it pays on deposits--jumped 63% to $3.77 million from $2.31 million.

Lincoln’s assets March 31 totaled $285.7 million, up from $196.7 million a year ago.