Bridge Bancorp (BDGE) Competitors

Bridge Bancorp (NASDAQ:BDGE) and First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, profitability and dividends.

Do analysts prefer BDGE or BUSE?

First Busey has a consensus price target of $27.67, suggesting a potential upside of 14.75%. Given First Busey's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe First Busey is more favorable than Bridge Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bridge Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
First Busey	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of BDGE or BUSE?

58.8% of Bridge Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of First Busey shares are held by institutional investors. 15.5% of Bridge Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of First Busey shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, BDGE or BUSE?

Bridge Bancorp has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Busey has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BDGE or BUSE a better dividend stock?

Bridge Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. First Busey pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Bridge Bancorp pays out 37.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Busey pays out 93.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. First Busey has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. First Busey is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, BDGE or BUSE?

First Busey has higher revenue and earnings than Bridge Bancorp. Bridge Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than First Busey, 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
Bridge Bancorp	$206.93M	2.67	$51.69M	$2.59	10.81
First Busey	$663.36M	3.25	$113.69M	$1.07	22.53

Is BDGE or BUSE more profitable?

Bridge Bancorp has a net margin of 23.05% compared to First Busey's net margin of 8.32%. Bridge Bancorp's return on equity of 9.83% beat First Busey's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bridge Bancorp	23.05%	9.83%	0.88%
First Busey	8.32%	8.46%	0.96%

Does the media refer more to BDGE or BUSE?

In the previous week, First Busey had 9 more articles in the media than Bridge Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for First Busey and 0 mentions for Bridge Bancorp. First Busey's average media sentiment score of 0.97 beat Bridge Bancorp's score of 0.00 indicating that First Busey is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Bridge Bancorp	Neutral
First Busey	Positive

Summary

First Busey beats Bridge Bancorp on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.