48,601 Shares in Hancock Whitney Corporation $HWC Bought by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 48,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,790,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the first quarter worth $31,000. Virtus Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the first quarter worth $41,000. Amundi acquired a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the first quarter worth $50,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 115.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 664 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 15.4% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,560 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the period. 81.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on HWC. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Hovde Group lifted their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Hancock Whitney from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut Hancock Whitney from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $62.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Friday, July 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $69.86.

Insider Transactions at Hancock Whitney

In other news, CFO Michael M. Achary sold 9,894 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.86, for a total value of $542,784.84. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 55,733 shares in the company, valued at $3,057,512.38. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.91% of the company’s stock.

Hancock Whitney Price Performance

NASDAQ HWC opened at $56.74 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.66. Hancock Whitney Corporation has a 52-week low of $43.90 and a 52-week high of $64.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.15 and a beta of 1.11.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The company reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.06. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.29% and a net margin of 23.99%.The business had revenue of $0.03 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $391.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.33 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Hancock Whitney Corporation will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.20%.

About Hancock Whitney

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.