Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) Short Interest Down 15.4% in September

Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,410,000 shares, a decline of 15.4% from the September 15th total of 2,850,000 shares. Approximately 2.8% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 550,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frank E. Bertucci sold 2,053 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.03, for a total value of $117,082.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 22,554 shares in the company, valued at $1,286,254.62. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hancock Whitney

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Hancock Whitney during the 1st quarter worth about $1,159,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 96.6% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 51,361 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,365,000 after purchasing an additional 25,241 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,226,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $424,801,000 after purchasing an additional 34,152 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its position in Hancock Whitney by 35.4% in the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 102,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,884,000 after purchasing an additional 26,705 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in Hancock Whitney by 22.1% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 59,636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,746,000 after buying an additional 10,810 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HWC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 20th. Hovde Group lifted their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Hancock Whitney from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Hancock Whitney from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Hancock Whitney from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $56.89.

Hancock Whitney Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HWC traded down $0.45 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $53.32. 978,257 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 502,517. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.62 billion, a PE ratio of 12.58 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.49. Hancock Whitney has a 12 month low of $32.16 and a 12 month high of $57.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The company reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $525.37 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $363.54 million. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.51% and a net margin of 18.63%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.12 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Hancock Whitney will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.00%. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio is 37.30%.

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.