Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in Hancock Whitney Corporation $HWC

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 23,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,520,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HWC. State Street Corp grew its stake in Hancock Whitney by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,521,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,935,000 after buying an additional 126,367 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Hancock Whitney during the 4th quarter valued at about $80,246,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Hancock Whitney by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 920,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,595,000 after acquiring an additional 162,482 shares during the period. UBS Group AG lifted its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 134.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 909,460 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,941,000 after purchasing an additional 521,261 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Hancock Whitney during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $57,463,000. Institutional investors own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on HWC shares. Zacks Research raised Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup increased their target price on Hancock Whitney from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Hovde Group downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $74.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Hancock Whitney from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Benchmark initiated coverage on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $84.00 target price for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.25.

Hancock Whitney Trading Down 1.4%

Hancock Whitney stock opened at $74.61 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $69.16 and a 200 day moving average of $67.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.32 and a beta of 0.94. Hancock Whitney Corporation has a 12-month low of $54.05 and a 12-month high of $76.39.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $393.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $400.01 million. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 21.34% and a return on equity of 11.20%. The company’s revenue was down 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.38 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Hancock Whitney Corporation will post 6.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.07%.

Insider Transactions at Hancock Whitney

In other Hancock Whitney news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 417 shares of Hancock Whitney stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.16, for a total value of $28,005.72. Following the sale, the director directly owned 25,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,683,432.56. The trade was a 1.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Hancock Whitney Company Profile

Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ: HWC) is a regional financial services company headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi. The firm was established in April 2019 through the merger of Hancock Holding Company and Whitney Holding Corporation, each of which traced its roots to the late 19th century. This combination created one of the largest bank holding companies in the Gulf South region, with a network of branches serving both urban and rural communities.

The company’s core business activities include commercial banking, retail banking and wealth management services.