Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) Forecasted to Earn FY2024 Earnings of $4.95 Per Share

Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) – Investment analysts at DA Davidson increased their FY2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Hancock Whitney in a report issued on Wednesday, April 17th. DA Davidson analyst G. Tenner now expects that the company will post earnings per share of $4.95 for the year, up from their previous forecast of $4.90. DA Davidson has a “Buy” rating and a $57.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Hancock Whitney’s current full-year earnings is $4.82 per share. DA Davidson also issued estimates for Hancock Whitney’s FY2025 earnings at $5.21 EPS.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 16th. The company reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.89% and a net margin of 19.07%. The firm had revenue of $308.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $355.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.65 EPS.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on HWC. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $52.00 price target (down previously from $55.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $50.00 to $46.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James raised their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $51.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup raised Hancock Whitney from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.71.

Hancock Whitney Stock Up 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ HWC opened at $44.27 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.79. Hancock Whitney has a 52 week low of $31.02 and a 52 week high of $49.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.32 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $43.58 and its 200 day moving average is $42.49.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hancock Whitney

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 0.4% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,107,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $464,688,000 after buying an additional 42,241 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,192,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $446,670,000 after buying an additional 95,432 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,749,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $230,786,000 after buying an additional 249,944 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 15.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,567,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $238,218,000 after buying an additional 596,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 0.5% during the second quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 4,264,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $189,030,000 after buying an additional 21,842 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hancock Whitney news, insider Joseph S. Exnicios sold 9,857 shares of Hancock Whitney stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.15, for a total value of $464,757.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,159 shares in the company, valued at $1,421,996.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Hancock Whitney news, insider Joseph S. Exnicios sold 9,857 shares of Hancock Whitney stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.15, for a total value of $464,757.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,159 shares in the company, valued at $1,421,996.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher S. Ziluca sold 3,636 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.50, for a total value of $158,166.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 35,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,534,897.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,183 shares of company stock valued at $1,450,992 over the last ninety days. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 5th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.97%.

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.