Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Raises Stock Position in Hancock Whitney Corporation $HWC

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its holdings in Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) by 134.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,271 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,878 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Hancock Whitney were worth $188,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HWC. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Hancock Whitney by 50.4% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,057,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,024,869 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 1st quarter valued at $43,019,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 1st quarter valued at $38,163,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 294.0% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 391,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,531,000 after purchasing an additional 292,097 shares during the period. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,089,454 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,592,000 after purchasing an additional 235,363 shares during the period. 81.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on HWC. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Hancock Whitney from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Hancock Whitney from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Monday, September 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $70.00.

Hancock Whitney Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HWC opened at $63.08 on Tuesday. Hancock Whitney Corporation has a 52 week low of $43.90 and a 52 week high of $64.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.01. Hancock Whitney had a net margin of 23.28% and a return on equity of 11.21%. The business had revenue of $377.98 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $375.99 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.31 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Hancock Whitney Corporation will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.15%.

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.