Analysts Set Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) Price Target at $58.00

Shares of Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $58.00.

Several brokerages have commented on HWC. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Hancock Whitney from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 20th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Hancock Whitney from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stephens upgraded Hancock Whitney from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

Hancock Whitney Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of HWC stock opened at $55.26 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.39 and a beta of 1.27. Hancock Whitney has a 1 year low of $41.19 and a 1 year high of $62.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.26.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $525.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $363.54 million. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.47% and a net margin of 19.30%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.12 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Hancock Whitney will post 5.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.90%. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hancock Whitney news, CEO John M. Hairston sold 18,000 shares of Hancock Whitney stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.44, for a total value of $1,069,920.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 254,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,099,305.44. The trade was a 6.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 763 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.40, for a total transaction of $39,981.20. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,518 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,232,343.20. This represents a 3.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,994 shares of company stock valued at $1,593,710. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HWC. Versor Investments LP bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $844,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 66.7% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 33,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,694,000 after acquiring an additional 13,243 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney in the third quarter worth $2,605,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 35.4% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 102,103 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,884,000 after purchasing an additional 26,705 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 3rd quarter valued at $508,000. Institutional investors own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

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.