ABCB vs. ASB, UCBI, IBOC, FBP, AUB, TCBI, FIBK, CATY, HWC, and COLB
Should you be buying Ameris Bancorp stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ameris Bancorp include Associated Banc (ASB), United Community Banks (UCBI), International Bancshares (IBOC), First BanCorp. (FBP), Atlantic Union Bankshares (AUB), Texas Capital Bancshares (TCBI), First Interstate BancSystem (FIBK), Cathay General Bancorp (CATY), Hancock Whitney (HWC), and Columbia Banking System (COLB). These companies are all part of the "state commercial banks" industry.
Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) and Associated Banc (NYSE:ASB) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.
Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Associated Banc pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Ameris Bancorp pays out 14.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Associated Banc pays out 88.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.0% of Associated Banc shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Associated Banc shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, Associated Banc had 6 more articles in the media than Ameris Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Associated Banc and 5 mentions for Ameris Bancorp. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.56 beat Associated Banc's score of 0.74 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Ameris Bancorp received 164 more outperform votes than Associated Banc when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.58% of users gave Ameris Bancorp an outperform vote while only 50.74% of users gave Associated Banc an outperform vote.
Ameris Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $52.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.07%. Associated Banc has a consensus target price of $23.13, indicating a potential upside of 3.89%. Given Associated Banc's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Associated Banc is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.
Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Associated Banc has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Ameris Bancorp has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Associated Banc. Ameris Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Associated Banc, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Ameris Bancorp has a net margin of 18.06% compared to Associated Banc's net margin of 6.86%. Ameris Bancorp's return on equity of 8.62% beat Associated Banc's return on equity.
Summary
Ameris Bancorp beats Associated Banc on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ABCB and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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