Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.25.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on HWC. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Hancock Whitney from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Hovde Group downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $74.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $79.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th.

Hancock Whitney Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:HWC opened at $74.26 on Friday. Hancock Whitney has a 52-week low of $54.05 and a 52-week high of $75.43. The company has a market capitalization of $6.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.25 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.04. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 21.34% and a return on equity of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $393.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $400.01 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.38 EPS. Hancock Whitney’s revenue was down 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hancock Whitney will post 6.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.07%.

Insider Transactions at Hancock Whitney

In other Hancock Whitney news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 417 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.16, for a total transaction of $28,005.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 25,066 shares in the company, valued at $1,683,432.56. This trade represents a 1.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.92% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hancock Whitney

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Hancock Whitney by 0.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,790,954 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,652,000 after acquiring an additional 21,655 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Hancock Whitney by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,521,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,935,000 after acquiring an additional 126,367 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Hancock Whitney by 10.8% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,878,121 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,589,000 after acquiring an additional 182,845 shares during the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Hancock Whitney during the fourth quarter worth approximately $80,246,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Hancock Whitney by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 920,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,595,000 after acquiring an additional 162,482 shares during the last quarter. 81.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hancock Whitney Company Profile

Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ: HWC) is a regional financial services company headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi. The firm was established in April 2019 through the merger of Hancock Holding Company and Whitney Holding Corporation, each of which traced its roots to the late 19th century. This combination created one of the largest bank holding companies in the Gulf South region, with a network of branches serving both urban and rural communities.

The company’s core business activities include commercial banking, retail banking and wealth management services.