Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) Has Compensated Shareholders With A Respectable 75% Return On Their Investment
The main point of investing for the long term is to make money. Furthermore, you'd generally like to see the share price rise faster than the market But Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) has fallen short of that second goal, with a share price rise of 53% over five years, which is below the market return. Over the last twelve months the stock price has risen a very respectable 9.5%.
View our latest analysis for Hancock Whitney
While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.
Hancock Whitney's earnings per share are down 5.4% per year, despite strong share price performance over five years.
Essentially, it doesn't seem likely that investors are focused on EPS. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.
We are not particularly impressed by the annual compound revenue growth of 2.4% over five years. So it seems one might have to take closer look at earnings and revenue trends to see how they might influence the share price.
You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
Hancock Whitney is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Hancock Whitney, it has a TSR of 75% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!
A Different Perspective
Hancock Whitney shareholders are up 14% for the year (even including dividends). But that return falls short of the market. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 12% per year over five year. It is possible that returns will improve along with the business fundamentals. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Hancock Whitney that you should be aware of before investing here.
We will like Hancock Whitney better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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