Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) Increases Dividend to $0.45 Per Share

Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Hancock Whitney’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Hancock Whitney has raised its dividend by an average of 11.6% annually over the last three years. Hancock Whitney has a payout ratio of 27.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Hancock Whitney to earn $5.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.6%.

Hancock Whitney Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ HWC opened at $59.74 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.31 and a beta of 1.27. Hancock Whitney has a twelve month low of $41.19 and a twelve month high of $62.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The business’s fifty day moving average is $57.49 and its 200 day moving average is $54.27.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.12. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.56% and a net margin of 22.40%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.26 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hancock Whitney will post 5.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HWC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price 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. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $72.00 price objective (up previously from $64.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. StockNews.com lowered Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Hancock Whitney from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $74.00 price target (up previously from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.56.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO John M. Hairston sold 18,000 shares of Hancock Whitney stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 254,026 shares in the company, valued at $15,099,305.44. The trade was a 6.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.