Bank of New York Mellon Corp Acquires 7,351 Shares of Hancock Whitney Corporation $HWC

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 841,313 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,351 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Hancock Whitney were worth $48,291,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Hancock Whitney by 50.4% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,057,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,345,000 after buying an additional 1,024,869 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 1st quarter worth $43,019,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 1st quarter worth $38,163,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Hancock Whitney by 294.0% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 391,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,531,000 after purchasing an additional 292,097 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Hancock Whitney by 12.7% in the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,089,454 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,592,000 after purchasing an additional 235,363 shares in the last quarter. 81.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on HWC. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Hancock Whitney in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $73.00 to $72.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Hancock Whitney from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Hovde Group lifted their price target on Hancock Whitney from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $70.14.

Hancock Whitney Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of HWC stock opened at $59.02 on Wednesday. Hancock Whitney Corporation has a twelve month low of $43.90 and a twelve month high of $64.66. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.69. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $4.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.56 and a beta of 1.18.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $0.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $391.32 million. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.29% and a net margin of 23.99%.During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Hancock Whitney Corporation will post 5.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio is 32.20%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael M. Achary sold 9,894 shares of Hancock Whitney stock in a transaction on Friday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.86, for a total transaction of $542,784.84. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 55,733 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,057,512.38. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.91% 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.