Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) Rating Increased to Hold at Hovde Group

Hovde Group upgraded shares of Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on HWC. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research 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. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $79.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hancock Whitney currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.43.

Hancock Whitney Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of Hancock Whitney stock opened at $72.50 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.57. The company has a market cap of $5.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.89 and a beta of 0.95. Hancock Whitney has a fifty-two week low of $52.93 and a fifty-two week high of $75.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $393.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $400.01 million. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 21.34% and a return on equity of 11.20%. The company’s revenue was down 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Hancock Whitney will post 6.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Hancock Whitney’s payout ratio is currently 41.07%.

Insider Activity at Hancock Whitney

In other news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 417 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.16, for a total transaction of $28,005.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 25,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,683,432.56. The trade was a 1.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.92% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hancock Whitney

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HWC. Amundi purchased a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the first quarter worth about $50,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 4.6% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 51,664 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,710,000 after purchasing an additional 2,255 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 22.9% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 3,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $197,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Hancock Whitney by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 287,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,078,000 after acquiring an additional 11,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in Hancock Whitney by 951.9% during the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 123,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,494,000 after acquiring an additional 112,042 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

About Hancock Whitney

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.