Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.45 Per Share

Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid 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 boost from Hancock Whitney’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Hancock Whitney has raised its dividend by an average of 11.6% per year over the last three years. Hancock Whitney has a payout ratio of 27.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Hancock Whitney stock opened at $59.74 on Friday. Hancock Whitney has a 52-week low of $41.19 and a 52-week high of $62.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.27. The firm has a market cap of $5.14 billion, a PE ratio of 11.31 and a beta of 1.27.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.12. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 22.40% and a return on equity of 11.56%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Hancock Whitney will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on HWC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $74.00 target price (up from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $72.00 price target (up from $64.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hancock Whitney

In other news, CEO John M. Hairston sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.44, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.