COLB vs. HWC, ISBC, ABCB, ASB, UCBI, KEY, EWBC, FHN, WBS, and CBSH
Should you be buying Columbia Banking System stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Columbia Banking System include Hancock Whitney (HWC), Investors Bancorp (ISBC), Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), Associated Banc (ASB), United Community Banks (UCBI), KeyCorp (KEY), East West Bancorp (EWBC), First Horizon (FHN), Webster Financial (WBS), and Commerce Bancshares (CBSH). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) and Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.
In the previous week, Columbia Banking System had 4 more articles in the media than Hancock Whitney. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Columbia Banking System and 5 mentions for Hancock Whitney. Columbia Banking System's average media sentiment score of 0.75 beat Hancock Whitney's score of 0.68 indicating that Hancock Whitney is being referred to more favorably in the media.
81.2% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.5% of Columbia Banking System shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Columbia Banking System shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Hancock Whitney has a net margin of 19.07% compared to Hancock Whitney's net margin of 16.52%. Columbia Banking System's return on equity of 11.89% beat Hancock Whitney's return on equity.
Hancock Whitney has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Columbia Banking System has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Hancock Whitney pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Columbia Banking System pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.6%. Hancock Whitney pays out 37.3% 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. Hancock Whitney has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Columbia Banking System has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Columbia Banking System is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
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.
Columbia Banking System received 214 more outperform votes than Hancock Whitney when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 45.87% of users gave Hancock Whitney an outperform vote while only 44.30% of users gave Columbia Banking System an outperform vote.
Hancock Whitney currently has a consensus target price of $51.88, indicating a potential upside of 11.58%. Columbia Banking System has a consensus target price of $22.04, indicating a potential upside of 16.42%. Given Hancock Whitney's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Columbia Banking System is more favorable than Hancock Whitney.
Summary
Hancock Whitney beats Columbia Banking System on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding COLB and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This 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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