Hancock Whitney (HWC) Could Be a Great Choice

All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. But 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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.Hancock Whitney (HWC) is headquartered in Gulfport, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 12.33% since the start of the year. Currently paying a dividend of $0.50 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 2.8%. In comparison, the Banks - Southeast industry's yield is 2.04%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.44%.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 34%, meaning it paid out 34% 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 $6.42 per share, with earnings expected to increase 12.24% from the year ago period.From greatly improving stock investing profits and reducing overall portfolio risk to providing tax advantages, investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons. However, not all companies offer 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. Income investors must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, HWC presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).Beyond Nvidia: AI's Second Wave Is HereThe AI revolution has already minted millionaires. But the stocks everyone knows about aren't likely to keep delivering the biggest profits. AI’s second wave is moving from infrastructure to implementation and these companies are at the forefront of this transition, positioned to become what Amazon and Google were to the internet era.See Stocks Now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks