LKFN vs. BANR, OFG, RNST, HTLF, EFSC, FBK, FBNC, SYBT, BUSE, and TOWN
Should you be buying Lakeland Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Lakeland Financial include Banner (BANR), OFG Bancorp (OFG), Renasant (RNST), Heartland Financial USA (HTLF), Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC), FB Financial (FBK), First Bancorp (FBNC), Stock Yards Bancorp (SYBT), First Busey (BUSE), and TowneBank (TOWN). These companies are all part of the "state commercial banks" industry.
Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) and Banner (NASDAQ:BANR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, community ranking, dividends, media sentiment and earnings.
Lakeland Financial received 44 more outperform votes than Banner when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 58.23% of users gave Banner an outperform vote while only 56.69% of users gave Lakeland Financial an outperform vote.
Lakeland Financial has a net margin of 22.81% compared to Banner's net margin of 21.62%. Lakeland Financial's return on equity of 14.34% beat Banner's return on equity.
Lakeland Financial currently has a consensus target price of $74.00, suggesting a potential upside of 23.81%. Banner has a consensus target price of $51.20, suggesting a potential upside of 12.87%. Given Lakeland Financial's higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Lakeland Financial is more favorable than Banner.
81.2% of Lakeland Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.3% of Banner shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.3% of Lakeland Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Banner shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Lakeland Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Banner pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Lakeland Financial pays out 53.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Banner pays out 39.9% 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. Banner is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Lakeland Financial has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Banner has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Banner has higher revenue and earnings than Lakeland Financial. Banner is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lakeland Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Banner had 5 more articles in the media than Lakeland Financial. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Banner and 11 mentions for Lakeland Financial. Banner's average media sentiment score of 0.62 beat Lakeland Financial's score of 0.35 indicating that Banner is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Banner beats Lakeland Financial on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding LKFN 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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