Hancock Whitney Corp. HWC hiked its quarterly cash dividend by 12.5% to 45 cents per share. The dividend will be paid out on March 17, 2025, to its shareholders of record as of March 5.

Before the recent hike, the bank increased its dividend by 33.3% to 40 cents per share in April 2024. Hancock Whitney has raised its dividend thrice in the past five years with growth rate of 7.5%. It has a dividend payout ratio of 30%.

Based on its closing price of $59.74 as of Jan. 31, HWC’s forward dividend yield, considering the increased payout, is 3%.

HWC’s Other Capital Distribution Activities

Hancock Whitney has an ongoing repurchase program, announced in December 2024. This authorized HWC to buy back up to 5% of its shares, effective Jan. 1, 2025. The program is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2026. The previous plan, announced in January 2023, authorized the buyback of up to 4.3 million shares and expired on Dec. 31, 2024. As of Dec. 31, 2024, roughly 3.6 million shares remained available under the previous authorization.

Before that, HWC announced repurchase plan in April 2021 to buy back up to 4.3 million shares, which expired in December 2022.

Our Take on HWC Stock

HWC enjoys a decent balance sheet position. As of Dec. 31, 2024 total debt was $849.6 million. Total loans were $23.3 billion and total deposits were $29.5 billion.

Further, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, its common equity Tier-1 capital ratio of 14.14% and the total capital ratio of 15.93% were well above regulatory requirements.

Given the decent capital and liquidity positions, HWC is expected to sustain its current capital distribution activities and enhance shareholder value.

Shares of Hancock Whitney have risen 41.3% compared with the industry’s 32% growth in the past year.

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HWC currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Other Banks That Announced Dividend Hike

Last month, Bank OZK OZK hiked its quarterly cash dividend by 2.4% to 42 cents per share. The dividend was paid out on Jan. 21, 2025, to its shareholders of record as of Jan. 14.

OZK has hiked its quarterly cash dividend in each of the last 58 quarters. Before the recent hike, the bank increased its dividend by 2.5% to 41 cents per share in October 2024.

In December 2024, Preferred Bank PFBC announced an increase in its quarterly cash dividend. The company has raised its cash dividend 7.1% from the prior payout to 75 cents per share. The dividend was paid out on Jan. 23, 2025, to its shareholders of record as of Jan. 9.

Prior to this, in December 2023, PFBC increased its dividend 27.3% to 70 cents per share from its previous payout of 55 cents per share.

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