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Shareholders of Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) will be pleased this week, given that the stock price is up 12% to US$47.45 following its latest quarterly results. Hancock Whitney reported US$334m in revenue, roughly in line with analyst forecasts, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.38 beat expectations, being 2.2% higher than what the analysts expected. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. We thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.
View our latest analysis for Hancock Whitney
Taking into account the latest results, Hancock Whitney's nine analysts currently expect revenues in 2022 to be US$1.38b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory per share are forecast to be US$5.86, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$1.36b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$5.66 in 2022. The analysts seems to have become more bullish on the business, judging by their new earnings per share estimates.
The consensus price target was unchanged at US$58.22, implying that the improved earnings outlook is not expected to have a long term impact on value creation for shareholders. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. There are some variant perceptions on Hancock Whitney, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$62.00 and the most bearish at US$55.00 per share. This is a very narrow spread of estimates, implying either that Hancock Whitney is an easy company to value, or - more likely - the analysts are relying heavily on some key assumptions.
Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Hancock Whitney's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2022 expected to display 0.5% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 4.9% over the past five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 7.7% per year. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than Hancock Whitney.