TowneBank (TOWN) Competitors

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) and TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, community ranking, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SBCF or TOWN?

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida received 91 more outperform votes than TowneBank when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.16% of users gave Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida an outperform vote while only 55.41% of users gave TowneBank an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida	Outperform Votes 296 60.16%	Underperform Votes 196 39.84%
TowneBank	Outperform Votes 205 55.41%	Underperform Votes 165 44.59%

Is SBCF or TOWN more profitable?

TowneBank has a net margin of 15.50% compared to TowneBank's net margin of 15.08%. Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida's return on equity of 7.51% beat TowneBank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida	15.08%	5.68%	0.80%
TowneBank	15.50%	7.51%	0.89%

Which has more volatility and risk, SBCF or TOWN?

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TowneBank has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate SBCF or TOWN?

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida presently has a consensus target price of $26.10, indicating a potential upside of 7.41%. TowneBank has a consensus target price of $29.50, indicating a potential upside of 7.47%. Given Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe TowneBank is more favorable than Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40
TowneBank	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Is SBCF or TOWN a better dividend stock?

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. TowneBank pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida pays out 51.4% 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. Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and TowneBank has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. TowneBank is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, SBCF or TOWN?

TowneBank has higher revenue and earnings than Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida. TowneBank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida	$768.13M	2.69	$104.03M	$1.40	17.36
TowneBank	$941.58M	2.12	$153.71M	$2.01	13.66

Does the media refer more to SBCF or TOWN?

In the previous week, Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida and Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida both had 6 articles in the media. TowneBank's average media sentiment score of 0.99 beat Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida's score of 0.73 indicating that Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
TowneBank	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of SBCF or TOWN?

81.8% of Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.0% of TowneBank shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of TowneBank shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

TowneBank beats Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.