Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) Downgraded by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods to Market Perform

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report report published on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $63.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $62.00.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on HWC. Stephens lowered their target price on shares of Hancock Whitney from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $69.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $62.00 price objective (down previously from $72.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective (up previously from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.43.

Hancock Whitney Stock Down 3.7%

Shares of HWC opened at $59.58 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.99 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Hancock Whitney has a 52 week low of $43.90 and a 52 week high of $62.40.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.12 million. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 23.15% and a return on equity of 11.43%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Hancock Whitney will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.02%. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.21%.

Insider Activity at Hancock Whitney

In other news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 838 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.09, for a total transaction of $40,299.42. Following the sale, the director directly owned 23,019 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.91% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hancock Whitney

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Hancock Whitney by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,097,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $552,539,000 after acquiring an additional 181,706 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Hancock Whitney by 50.4% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,057,103 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,024,869 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Hancock Whitney by 12.7% in the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,089,454 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,592,000 after acquiring an additional 235,363 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Hancock Whitney by 6.8% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,027,364 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,139,000 after acquiring an additional 128,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Hancock Whitney by 0.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,465,661 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,874,000 after acquiring an additional 6,315 shares during the last quarter. 81.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.