Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $61.25.

HWC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Hancock Whitney from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Stephens reduced their target price on Hancock Whitney from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen raised Hancock Whitney from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $62.00 price target (down from $72.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target (up from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hancock Whitney

In other news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 838 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.09, for a total transaction of $40,299.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,019 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,983.71. This represents a 3.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.91% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hancock Whitney

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HWC. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Hancock Whitney by 50.4% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,057,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024,869 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the fourth quarter worth about $54,605,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the first quarter worth about $43,019,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the first quarter worth about $38,163,000. Finally, Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the fourth quarter worth about $24,775,000. 81.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hancock Whitney Stock Down 1.1%

HWC opened at $54.25 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a PE ratio of 10.27 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Hancock Whitney has a 52 week low of $43.60 and a 52 week high of $62.40. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.37.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $367.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.12 million. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.56% and a net margin of 22.40%. As a group, research analysts expect that Hancock Whitney will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. Hancock Whitney’s payout ratio is 33.21%.

Hancock Whitney Company Profile

Hancock Whitney Corporation operates as the financial holding company for Hancock Whitney Bank that provides traditional and online banking services to commercial, small business, and retail customers. It offers various transaction and savings deposit products consisting of brokered deposits, time deposits, and money market accounts; treasury management services, secured and unsecured loan products including revolving credit facilities, and letters of credit and similar financial guarantees; and trust and investment management services to retirement plans, corporations, and individuals, and investment advisory and brokerage products.