Salzhauer Michael Increases Stock Position in Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC)

Salzhauer Michael raised its position in Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) by 33.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,796 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Salzhauer Michael’s holdings in Hancock Whitney were worth $1,302,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Hancock Whitney in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,911 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney in the fourth quarter worth about $138,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,581 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,000 after buying an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Hancock Whitney from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 price target (up previously from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $62.00 target price (down from $72.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Hancock Whitney from $69.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Hancock Whitney from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hancock Whitney has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.56.

Hancock Whitney Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of HWC stock opened at $48.52 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.19 and a beta of 0.99. Hancock Whitney Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.39 and a fifty-two week 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.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $367.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.12 million. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 22.40% and a return on equity of 11.56%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Hancock Whitney Co. will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Hancock Whitney’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.09%.

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.