Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Buys 35,586 Shares of Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in Hancock Whitney Co. (NASDAQ:HWC) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 727,973 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,586 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings in Hancock Whitney were worth $39,835,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Hancock Whitney by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 63,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,687,000 after purchasing an additional 4,219 shares during the period. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP increased its position in Hancock Whitney by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP now owns 10,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $582,000 after buying an additional 1,179 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hancock Whitney by 1.8% in the fourth 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. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 4th quarter valued at $930,000. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 4th quarter worth $449,000. 81.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on HWC. StockNews.com raised shares of Hancock Whitney from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $68.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $72.00 price objective (up from $64.00) on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Hancock Whitney from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.56.

Hancock Whitney Trading Up 3.7 %

Hancock Whitney stock opened at $54.26 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Hancock Whitney Co. has a fifty-two week low of $41.56 and a fifty-two week high of $62.40. The stock has a market cap of $4.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.28 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $56.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.30.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.12. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.56% and a net margin of 22.40%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.26 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast 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 given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Hancock Whitney’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. Hancock Whitney’s payout ratio is presently 34.09%.

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.