Hancock Whitney Corp Sells 559 Shares of Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD)

Hancock Whitney Corp reduced its position in shares of Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD) by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,852 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 559 shares during the quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Walker & Dunlop were worth $575,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Impactive Capital LP boosted its stake in shares of Walker & Dunlop by 242.0% during the 1st quarter. Impactive Capital LP now owns 1,034,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $104,505,000 after acquiring an additional 731,714 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Walker & Dunlop in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,059,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Walker & Dunlop by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,063,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $104,438,000 after buying an additional 129,289 shares during the last quarter. GPM Growth Investors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Walker & Dunlop during the 2nd quarter worth about $4,595,000. Finally, Castleark Management LLC acquired a new position in Walker & Dunlop in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,297,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.97% of the company’s stock.

Walker & Dunlop Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE WD opened at $113.09 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.27 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a 50 day moving average of $105.45 and a 200-day moving average of $98.76. Walker & Dunlop, Inc. has a 1-year low of $62.51 and a 1-year high of $113.69.

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $270.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $274.50 million. Walker & Dunlop had a return on equity of 9.65% and a net margin of 8.41%. The company’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Walker & Dunlop, Inc. will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Walker & Dunlop Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. Walker & Dunlop’s payout ratio is presently 94.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Walker & Dunlop from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com raised Walker & Dunlop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Walker & Dunlop from $105.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th.

Insider Transactions at Walker & Dunlop

In related news, COO Stephen P. Theobald sold 13,870 shares of Walker & Dunlop stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $1,471,607.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 53,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,715,500.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 5.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Walker & Dunlop Profile

Walker & Dunlop, Inc, through its subsidiaries, originates, sells, and services a range of multifamily and other commercial real estate financing products and services for owners and developers of real estate in the United States. It operates through three segments: Capital Markets, Servicing & Asset Management, and Corporate.