Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) Price Target Increased to $57.00 by Analysts at DA Davidson

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) had its price objective increased by DA Davidson from $55.00 to $57.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock. DA Davidson also issued estimates for Hancock Whitney’s FY2024 earnings at $4.95 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $5.21 EPS.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Stephens reduced their target price on Hancock Whitney from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. StockNews.com lowered Hancock Whitney from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Sunday, March 31st. Citigroup upgraded Hancock Whitney from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James upped their price target on Hancock Whitney from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Hancock Whitney from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $50.71.

Hancock Whitney Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ HWC opened at $44.27 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.32 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.49. Hancock Whitney has a 52 week low of $31.02 and a 52 week high of $49.65. 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 (NASDAQ:HWC) last posted its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $355.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.65 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Hancock Whitney will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Hancock Whitney

In other Hancock Whitney news, insider Christopher S. Ziluca sold 3,636 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.50, for a total value of $158,166.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 35,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,534,897.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Hancock Whitney news, COO D Shane Loper sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.81, for a total value of $828,068.90. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 71,148 shares in the company, valued at $3,330,437.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher S. Ziluca sold 3,636 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 35,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,534,897.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,183 shares of company stock worth $1,450,992. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hancock Whitney

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HWC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the fourth quarter worth $46,846,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,143,000. Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the first quarter valued at about $22,744,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Hancock Whitney by 15.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,567,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $238,218,000 after acquiring an additional 596,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citadel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Hancock Whitney by 183.1% in the second quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 442,487 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,616,000 after acquiring an additional 286,206 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

Hancock Whitney Company Profile

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.