Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Benchmark

Benchmark upgraded shares of Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Hancock Whitney from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Hancock Whitney from $79.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Hovde Group cut shares of Hancock Whitney from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $74.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hancock Whitney has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.25.

Hancock Whitney Stock Performance

Shares of Hancock Whitney stock opened at $74.26 on Wednesday. Hancock Whitney has a one year low of $54.05 and a one year high of $75.43. The business 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. The company has a market cap of $6.03 billion, a PE ratio of 15.25 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Hancock Whitney

In related news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 417 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.16, for a total value of $28,005.72. Following the sale, the director owned 25,066 shares in the company, valued at $1,683,432.56. This represents a 1.64% decrease in their position. The transaction 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

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Hancock Whitney by 26.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 348,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,850,000 after buying an additional 72,433 shares in the last quarter. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney in the fourth quarter valued at $1,094,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney in the third quarter worth $23,457,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new stake in Hancock Whitney during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,070,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $117,589,000 after buying an additional 182,845 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

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.