Bayforest Capital Ltd Acquires New Position in Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC)

Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 8,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $425,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vestcor Inc bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the first quarter worth about $320,000. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Hancock Whitney by 10.9% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 48,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,533,000 after acquiring an additional 4,727 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Hancock Whitney in the first quarter worth about $4,256,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Hancock Whitney by 216.5% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 205,512 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,779,000 after acquiring an additional 140,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Hancock Whitney by 2.7% in the first quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 30,764 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,614,000 after acquiring an additional 811 shares during the last quarter. 81.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on HWC shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Hancock Whitney from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Hancock Whitney from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $62.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Friday, July 11th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Hancock Whitney from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Stephens reduced their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.71.

Hancock Whitney Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HWC opened at $60.25 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.10 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Hancock Whitney Corporation has a 12 month low of $43.90 and a 12 month high of $62.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $57.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.49.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.01. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.21% and a net margin of 23.28%. The company had revenue of $377.98 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $375.99 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Hancock Whitney Corporation will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. Hancock Whitney’s payout ratio is 33.15%.

Hancock Whitney 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.