Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) vs. Fidelity D&D Bancorp (NASDAQ:FDBC) Critical Survey

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) and Fidelity D&D Bancorp (NASDAQ:FDBC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Hancock Whitney and Fidelity D&D Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hancock Whitney	0	4	6	1	2.73
Fidelity D&D Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00

Hancock Whitney currently has a consensus price target of $83.78, suggesting a potential upside of 7.96%. Given Hancock Whitney’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Hancock Whitney is more favorable than Fidelity D&D Bancorp.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Hancock Whitney and Fidelity D&D Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hancock Whitney	$2.02 billion	3.12	$486.07 million	$5.10	15.22
Fidelity D&D Bancorp	$98.32 million	3.22	$28.20 million	$5.25	10.38

Hancock Whitney has higher revenue and earnings than Fidelity D&D Bancorp. Fidelity D&D Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hancock Whitney, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

81.2% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.0% of Fidelity D&D Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.7% of Fidelity D&D Bancorp shares are held by company 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.

Dividends

Hancock Whitney pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Fidelity D&D Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Hancock Whitney pays out 39.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fidelity D&D Bancorp pays out 32.8% 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. Hancock Whitney has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Fidelity D&D Bancorp has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Fidelity D&D Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Hancock Whitney and Fidelity D&D Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hancock Whitney	21.81%	11.36%	1.41%
Fidelity D&D Bancorp	21.12%	12.88%	1.10%

Volatility and Risk

Hancock Whitney has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fidelity D&D Bancorp has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Hancock Whitney beats Fidelity D&D Bancorp on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hancock Whitney

Hancock Whitney Corporation operates as the financial holding company for Hancock Whitney Bank that provides traditional and online banking services to commercial, small business, and retail customers. It offers various transaction and savings deposit products consisting of brokered deposits, time deposits, and money market accounts; treasury management services, secured and unsecured loan products including revolving credit facilities, and letters of credit and similar financial guarantees; and trust and investment management services to retirement plans, corporations, and individuals, and investment advisory and brokerage products. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans including real and non-real estate loans; construction and land development loans; and residential mortgages, as well as consumer loans. In addition, it offers commercial finance products to middle market and corporate clients, including leases and related structures; facilitates investments in new market tax credit activities and holding certain foreclosed assets; provides customers access to fixed annuity and life insurance products; and underwriting transactions products, as well as debt and mortgage-related securities. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi.

About Fidelity D&D Bancorp

Fidelity D&D Bancorp, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of commercial banking services. It operates through the following segments: Commercial and Industrial, Commercial Real Estate, Consumer, and Residential Real Estate. The Commercial and Industrial segment refers to identified historic and/or the projected cash flows of the borrower and secondarily to the underlying collateral provided by the borrower. The Commercial Real Estate segment offers finances purchase of real estate, refinance existing obligations, and/or to provide capital. The Consumer segment includes home equity installment loans and lines of credit. The Residential Real Estate segment operates as a secured first lien position of the borrower’s residential real estate. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Dunmore, PA.