Hancock Whitney (HWC) Competitors

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) and Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability, risk, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and institutional ownership.

Do analysts prefer HWC or COLB?

Hancock Whitney presently has a consensus target price of $50.71, indicating a potential upside of 8.50%. Columbia Banking System has a consensus target price of $22.19, indicating a potential upside of 16.07%. Given Columbia Banking System's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Columbia Banking System is more favorable than Hancock Whitney.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hancock Whitney	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
Columbia Banking System	0 Sell rating(s)	11 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.15

Is HWC or COLB a better dividend stock?

Hancock Whitney pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Columbia Banking System pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.5%. Hancock Whitney pays out 28.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Columbia Banking System pays out 61.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HWC or COLB?

Columbia Banking System received 215 more outperform votes than Hancock Whitney when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 45.28% of users gave Hancock Whitney an outperform vote while only 44.50% of users gave Columbia Banking System an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hancock Whitney	Outperform Votes 48 45.28%	Underperform Votes 58 54.72%
Columbia Banking System	Outperform Votes 263 44.50%	Underperform Votes 328 55.50%

Is HWC or COLB more profitable?

Hancock Whitney has a net margin of 19.07% compared to Columbia Banking System's net margin of 16.52%. Hancock Whitney's return on equity of 11.89% beat Columbia Banking System's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hancock Whitney	19.07%	11.89%	1.22%
Columbia Banking System	16.52%	11.66%	1.07%

Does the media favor HWC or COLB?

In the previous week, Columbia Banking System had 6 more articles in the media than Hancock Whitney. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Columbia Banking System and 8 mentions for Hancock Whitney. Columbia Banking System's average media sentiment score of 0.88 beat Hancock Whitney's score of 0.64 indicating that Columbia Banking System is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Hancock Whitney	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Columbia Banking System	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, HWC or COLB?

Hancock Whitney has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Columbia Banking System. Columbia Banking System is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hancock Whitney, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hancock Whitney	$1.91B	2.12	$392.60M	$4.29	10.90
Columbia Banking System	$2.74B	1.46	$348.71M	$2.33	8.21

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in HWC or COLB?

81.2% of Hancock Whitney shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.5% of Columbia Banking System shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Hancock Whitney shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Columbia Banking System shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, HWC or COLB?

Hancock Whitney has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Columbia Banking System has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Hancock Whitney beats Columbia Banking System on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.