HTLF vs. TOWN, FBK, OFG, SBCF, RNST, LKFN, BANR, INDB, LOB, and EFSC
Should you be buying Heartland Financial USA stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Heartland Financial USA include TowneBank (TOWN), FB Financial (FBK), OFG Bancorp (OFG), Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida (SBCF), Renasant (RNST), Lakeland Financial (LKFN), Banner (BANR), Independent Bank (INDB), Live Oak Bancshares (LOB), and Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC). These companies are all part of the "state commercial banks" industry.
Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) and TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, community ranking, risk and analyst recommendations.
Heartland Financial USA presently has a consensus target price of $45.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.41%. TowneBank has a consensus target price of $29.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.06%. Given TowneBank's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe TowneBank is more favorable than Heartland Financial USA.
TowneBank has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Heartland Financial USA. TowneBank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heartland Financial USA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
TowneBank has a net margin of 15.50% compared to Heartland Financial USA's net margin of 8.17%. Heartland Financial USA's return on equity of 11.50% beat TowneBank's return on equity.
71.6% of Heartland Financial USA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.0% of TowneBank shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Heartland Financial USA shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of TowneBank shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Heartland Financial USA had 34 more articles in the media than TowneBank. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for Heartland Financial USA and 1 mentions for TowneBank. TowneBank's average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat Heartland Financial USA's score of 0.54 indicating that TowneBank is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Heartland Financial USA received 193 more outperform votes than TowneBank when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.96% of users gave Heartland Financial USA an outperform vote while only 55.41% of users gave TowneBank an outperform vote.
Heartland Financial USA has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TowneBank has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Heartland Financial USA pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. TowneBank pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Heartland Financial USA pays out 72.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TowneBank pays out 49.8% 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. TowneBank is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Heartland Financial USA beats TowneBank on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding HTLF 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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