Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Southside Bancshares, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Lindsey Bailes, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Lindsey, please go ahead.

Lindsey Bailes
Senior VP & Investor Relations Officer

Thank you, Rebecca. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Southside Bancshares First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. A transcript of today's call will be posted on southside.com under Investor Relations. During today's call and in other disclosures and presentations, I'll remind you forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could materially change our current forward-looking assumptions are described in our earnings release and our Form 10-K.

Joining me today are President and CEO, Keith Donahoe; CFO, Julie Shamburger; and Chief Treasury Officer, Suni Davis. Keith will start us off with his comments on the quarter, then Julie will give an overview of our financial results, and Suni will end with comments on securities and funding. We will have a Q&A session following Suni's remarks. I will now turn the call over to Keith.

Keith Donahoe
CEO, President & Director

Thank you, Lindsey, and welcome to today's call. We are pleased to report solid financial results for the first quarter of '26. Highlights include strong linked quarter loan growth of 2.7%, increased earnings per share of $0.78, improved