DA Davidson Increases Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) Price Target to $57.00

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) had its price target upped by equities research analysts at DA Davidson from $55.00 to $57.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. DA Davidson’s target price indicates a potential upside of 33.40% from the company’s previous close. DA Davidson also issued estimates for Hancock Whitney’s FY2024 earnings at $4.95 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $5.21 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on HWC. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $51.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com cut Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, March 31st. Truist Financial increased their price target on Hancock Whitney from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Citigroup raised Hancock Whitney from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $48.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Hancock Whitney from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.75.

Hancock Whitney Stock Performance

HWC stock opened at $42.73 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a PE ratio of 9.96 and a beta of 1.33. Hancock Whitney has a 12-month low of $31.02 and a 12-month high of $49.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.43.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 16th. The company reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $308.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $355.51 million. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 12.08% and a net margin of 19.07%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Hancock Whitney will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Hancock Whitney

In other Hancock Whitney news, COO D Shane Loper sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.81, for a total value of $828,068.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 71,148 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,330,437.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Hancock Whitney news, COO D Shane Loper sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.81, for a total value of $828,068.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 71,148 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,330,437.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Joseph S. Exnicios sold 9,857 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.15, for a total value of $464,757.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,421,996.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,183 shares of company stock worth $1,450,992 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HWC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney during the fourth quarter valued at about $46,846,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,143,000. Wasatch Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney during the first quarter valued at about $22,744,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 15.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,567,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $238,218,000 after purchasing an additional 596,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citadel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 183.1% during the second quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 442,487 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,616,000 after purchasing an additional 286,206 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.22% of the company’s stock.

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.