Hancock Whitney Co. (HWC) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 5th

Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) announced a quarterly dividend on Sunday, March 2nd, 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This is an increase from Hancock Whitney’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Hancock Whitney has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.6% annually over the last three years. Hancock Whitney has a dividend payout ratio of 31.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Hancock Whitney to earn $5.67 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.7%.

Hancock Whitney Price Performance

HWC opened at $57.13 on Monday. Hancock Whitney has a 1 year low of $41.56 and a 1 year high of $62.40. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.92 billion, a PE ratio of 10.82 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm posted $1.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hancock Whitney will post 5.53 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on HWC. StockNews.com lowered Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned 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 a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.56.

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.