Whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities, all investors love seeing their portfolios score big returns. However, when you're an income investor, your primary focus is generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments.
Cash flow can come from bond interest, interest from other types of investments, and, of course, dividends. A dividend is the distribution of a company's earnings paid out to shareholders; it's often viewed by its dividend yield, a metric that measures a dividend as a percent of the current stock price. Many academic studies show that dividends account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.
Hancock Whitney (HWC) is headquartered in Gulfport, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 7.76% since the start of the year. The holding company of Whitney Bank and Hancock Bank is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.50 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.91%. This compares to the Banks - Southeast industry's yield of 2.02% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.41%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.00 is up 11.1% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Hancock Whitney has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 11.55%. Looking ahead, future dividend growth will be dependent on earnings growth and payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Hancock Whitney's current payout ratio is 31%, meaning it paid out 31% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
Looking at this fiscal year, HWC expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 is $6.28 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 9.79%.
From greatly improving stock investing profits and reducing overall portfolio risk to providing tax advantages, investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons. But, not every company offers a quarterly payout.
For instance, it's a rare occurrence when a tech start-up or big growth business offers its shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, HWC is a compelling investment opportunity. Not only is it a strong dividend play, but the stock currently sits at a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
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Hancock Whitney Corporation (HWC): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).