First Financial Bancorp. (FFBC) Competitors

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) and First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, community ranking and dividends.

Do analysts rate CBSH or FFBC?

Commerce Bancshares presently has a consensus price target of $63.20, indicating a potential upside of 4.05%. First Financial Bancorp. has a consensus price target of $30.00, indicating a potential upside of 29.59%. Given First Financial Bancorp.'s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe First Financial Bancorp. is more favorable than Commerce Bancshares.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Commerce Bancshares	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
First Financial Bancorp.	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of CBSH or FFBC?

70.3% of Commerce Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.2% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are held by institutional investors. 3.1% of Commerce Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CBSH or FFBC?

Commerce Bancshares received 20 more outperform votes than First Financial Bancorp. when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 46.22% of users gave First Financial Bancorp. an outperform vote while only 44.10% of users gave Commerce Bancshares an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Commerce Bancshares	Outperform Votes 295 44.10%	Underperform Votes 374 55.90%
First Financial Bancorp.	Outperform Votes 275 46.22%	Underperform Votes 320 53.78%

Which has more volatility and risk, CBSH or FFBC?

Commerce Bancshares has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Financial Bancorp. has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CBSH or FFBC a better dividend stock?

Commerce Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. First Financial Bancorp. pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Commerce Bancshares pays out 26.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Financial Bancorp. pays out 39.8% 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. Commerce Bancshares has raised its dividend for 58 consecutive years.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, CBSH or FFBC?

Commerce Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than First Financial Bancorp.. First Financial Bancorp. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Commerce Bancshares, 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
Commerce Bancshares	$1.69B	4.83	$526.33M	$4.13	14.71
First Financial Bancorp.	$835.58M	2.64	$228.83M	$2.41	9.61

Is CBSH or FFBC more profitable?

Commerce Bancshares has a net margin of 25.24% compared to First Financial Bancorp.'s net margin of 18.67%. Commerce Bancshares' return on equity of 16.31% beat First Financial Bancorp.'s return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Commerce Bancshares	25.24%	16.31%	1.69%
First Financial Bancorp.	18.67%	10.52%	1.38%

Does the media prefer CBSH or FFBC?

In the previous week, Commerce Bancshares had 1 more articles in the media than First Financial Bancorp.. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Commerce Bancshares and 24 mentions for First Financial Bancorp.. Commerce Bancshares' average media sentiment score of 1.25 beat First Financial Bancorp.'s score of 0.62 indicating that Commerce Bancshares is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Commerce Bancshares	17 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
First Financial Bancorp.	7 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Commerce Bancshares beats First Financial Bancorp. on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.