LPL Financial LLC Sells 2,524 Shares of Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC)

LPL Financial LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,594 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,524 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Hancock Whitney were worth $908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Hancock Whitney by 149.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 321,196 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,435,000 after acquiring an additional 192,295 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 20,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,741 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Hancock Whitney by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 551,636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,227,000 after buying an additional 96,092 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Hancock Whitney by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 160,369 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,811,000 after acquiring an additional 6,506 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC lifted its stake in Hancock Whitney by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 36,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,977,000 after purchasing an additional 606 shares during the last quarter. 81.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HWC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price (up from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Stephens decreased their target price on shares of Hancock Whitney from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Hancock Whitney from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $62.00 price objective (down previously from $72.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Hancock Whitney currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.56.

Hancock Whitney Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Hancock Whitney stock opened at $48.65 on Monday. Hancock Whitney Co. has a 1 year low of $43.60 and a 1 year high of $62.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a 50-day moving average of $52.57 and a 200 day moving average of $55.15. The firm has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.10. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 22.40% and a return on equity of 11.56%. The business had revenue of $367.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $368.12 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Hancock Whitney Co. will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%. This is an increase from Hancock Whitney’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Hancock Whitney’s payout ratio is 33.21%.

Hancock Whitney Profile

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.