First Community Bankshares (FCBC) Competitors

First Community Bankshares (NASDAQ:FCBC) and Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Which has more volatility and risk, FCBC or HTLF?

First Community Bankshares has a beta of 0.52, meaning that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heartland Financial USA has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, FCBC or HTLF?

Heartland Financial USA has higher revenue and earnings than First Community Bankshares. First Community Bankshares 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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Community Bankshares	$155.82M	4.43	$51.60M	$2.77	13.60
Heartland Financial USA	$932.87M	2.97	$79.92M	$1.79	36.13

Is FCBC or HTLF more profitable?

First Community Bankshares has a net margin of 27.81% compared to Heartland Financial USA's net margin of 8.79%. Heartland Financial USA's return on equity of 10.81% beat First Community Bankshares' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Community Bankshares	27.81%	10.35%	1.64%
Heartland Financial USA	8.79%	10.81%	1.09%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in FCBC or HTLF?

35.0% of First Community Bankshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.6% of Heartland Financial USA shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of First Community Bankshares shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Heartland Financial USA shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is FCBC or HTLF a better dividend stock?

First Community Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Heartland Financial USA pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. First Community Bankshares pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heartland Financial USA pays out 67.0% 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. First Community Bankshares has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. First Community Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FCBC or HTLF?

Heartland Financial USA received 160 more outperform votes than First Community Bankshares when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 58.15% of users gave First Community Bankshares an outperform vote while only 55.57% of users gave Heartland Financial USA an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
First Community Bankshares	Outperform Votes 239 58.15%	Underperform Votes 172 41.85%
Heartland Financial USA	Outperform Votes 399 55.57%	Underperform Votes 319 44.43%

Does the media refer more to FCBC or HTLF?

In the previous week, First Community Bankshares had 2 more articles in the media than Heartland Financial USA. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for First Community Bankshares and 0 mentions for Heartland Financial USA. First Community Bankshares' average media sentiment score of 1.26 beat Heartland Financial USA's score of 0.00 indicating that First Community Bankshares is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
First Community Bankshares	Positive
Heartland Financial USA	Neutral

Do analysts rate FCBC or HTLF?

First Community Bankshares currently has a consensus price target of $38.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.85%. Heartland Financial USA has a consensus price target of $54.00, suggesting a potential downside of 16.50%. Given First Community Bankshares' higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe First Community Bankshares is more favorable than Heartland Financial USA.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Community Bankshares	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Heartland Financial USA	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Summary

First Community Bankshares beats Heartland Financial USA on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.