First Hawaiian Bank, marking its first anniversary as a publicly traded company, boosted earnings nearly 10 percent in the third quarter amid a solid performance from its loan portfolio.

Parent company First Hawaiian Inc. reported Thursday that net income rose 9.6 percent to $58.4 million, or 42 cents a share, to match analysts’ estimates. In the year-earlier period, First Hawaiian earned $53.2 million, or 38 cents a share.

The state’s largest bank said loans rose 6.6 percent to $12.1 billion, deposits edged up 3.7 percent to $17.6 billion and assets climbed 3.4 percent to $20.6 billion.

“It was a very good quarter,” First Hawaiian Chairman and CEO Bob Harrison said in a phone interview from Japan, where he is visiting bank customers. “Here we are, one year after our IPO (initial public offering), and we continue to see solid results and positive momentum. We’re still seeing growth and excellent asset quality because our bankers are executing on their relationship strategy.”

Harrison said his annual trip to Japan was in keeping with the tradition established by previous First Hawaiian CEOs Johnny Bellinger, Walter Dods and Don Horner.

“A significant part of our bank is relationships, especially on the deposit side,” Harrison said. “Relationships are critical anywhere, especially in Japan, ever since Johnny Bellinger called over here consistently for years. Walter and Don Horner did, and I’ve taken up the same baton that was handed to me and continued to develop those relationships. This is my seventh or eighth year coming to Japan, and I love being here and spending time with customers.”

Harrison said he was satisfied that the loan portfolio’s performance met the bank’s target for a mid-single-digit return.

“Mid-single digits when the economy is growing low single digits is a very strong performance,” he said. “We really want to have good-quality loan growth. As you look at the tail end of an economic cycle, that’s typically when banks and lenders get in trouble — than at the beginning — when people start getting aggressive with loans. We’re comfortable with mid- to high single digits for this year and mid-single digits for next year.”

Harrison said the bank’s small increase in deposits would have been larger if not for two large withdrawals during the quarter.

“When you’re working with large commercial companies, sometimes you see large swings with deposits,” he said. Two customers withdrew over $350 million, Harrison said. “One captive insurance company, as part of their regular business, withdrew $250 million in deposits.”

First Hawaiian’s net interest income, the difference between the interest it pays on deposits and the interest it receives on loans, rose 8.7 percent to $133.3 million. The bank’s noninterest income, which includes service charges and fees, slipped 0.3 percent to $48.5 million. The noninterest income was bolstered, though, by a $2.7 million gain from the sale of a portion of the parking lot at the bank’s secure data center near Kalihi Stream that the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation needed for rail construction.

First Hawaiian’s stock has traded publicly on the Nasdaq since Aug. 4 after Paris-based banking giant BNP Paribas sold a partial stake in the Hawaii bank. BNP, which at one time owned 100 percent of First Hawaiian, has said it eventually plans to divest itself of all of the company’s shares, but hasn’t made a move since its sale in February reduced its stake to 62 percent.

BNP’s reluctance to sell its remaining shares could be value-related because First Hawaiian’s stock is down 14.1 percent for the year after closing up 12 cents at $29.91 Thursday before the financial results were announced. BNP received $32 a share during its last sale of First Hawaiian stock.

“They’ve made it clear they intend to sell down their stake over time, and only they can answer the timing of that,” Harrison said.

First Hawaiian, which has increased its dividend once since initiating it after the IPO, maintained its quarterly dividend at 22 cents a share. It will be payable Dec. 8 to stockholders of record at the close of business Nov. 27.