State of Michigan Retirement System Grows Stock Holdings in Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC)

State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) by 1.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,640 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Hancock Whitney were worth $1,083,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,097,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $552,539,000 after buying an additional 181,706 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,027,364 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,139,000 after buying an additional 128,860 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,321,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,300,000 after buying an additional 193,028 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Hancock Whitney by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,265,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,229,000 after buying an additional 66,074 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $54,605,000. 81.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on HWC shares. Stephens reduced their price target on shares of Hancock Whitney from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target (up previously from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. DA Davidson cut their target price on Hancock Whitney from $69.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $62.00 target price (down previously from $72.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Hancock Whitney from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $62.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.43.

Hancock Whitney Stock Down 3.3%

Shares of NASDAQ HWC opened at $58.22 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.74 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Hancock Whitney Corporation has a 52-week low of $43.90 and a 52-week high of $62.40. The business’s 50 day moving average is $56.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.07.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $377.98 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $375.99 million. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 23.15%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Hancock Whitney Corporation will post 5.53 EPS for the current year.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. Hancock Whitney’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.21%.

Insider Activity at Hancock Whitney

In other Hancock Whitney news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 838 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.09, for a total value of $40,299.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 23,019 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,983.71. The trade was a 3.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.91% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.