Horizon Bancorp (HBNC) Competitors

TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) and Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Is TOWN or HBNC more profitable?

TowneBank has a net margin of 15.77% compared to Horizon Bancorp's net margin of 9.86%. Horizon Bancorp's return on equity of 8.48% beat TowneBank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TowneBank	15.77%	7.77%	0.96%
Horizon Bancorp	9.86%	8.48%	0.79%

Do analysts rate TOWN or HBNC?

TowneBank currently has a consensus price target of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 21.29%. Horizon Bancorp has a consensus price target of $17.33, indicating a potential upside of 17.59%. Given TowneBank's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe TowneBank is more favorable than Horizon Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TowneBank	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Horizon Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Is TOWN or HBNC a better dividend stock?

TowneBank pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Horizon Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. TowneBank pays out 42.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Horizon Bancorp pays out 62.7% 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. TowneBank has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Which has more volatility and risk, TOWN or HBNC?

TowneBank has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Horizon Bancorp has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor TOWN or HBNC?

In the previous week, TowneBank had 1 more articles in the media than Horizon Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for TowneBank and 10 mentions for Horizon Bancorp. TowneBank's average media sentiment score of 1.06 beat Horizon Bancorp's score of 0.19 indicating that TowneBank is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
TowneBank	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Horizon Bancorp	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, TOWN or HBNC?

TowneBank has higher revenue and earnings than Horizon Bancorp. TowneBank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Horizon Bancorp, 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
TowneBank	$692.51M	3.57	$161.76M	$2.36	13.97
Horizon Bancorp	$203.08M	3.19	$35.43M	$1.02	14.45

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

56.0% of TowneBank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.5% of Horizon Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.1% of TowneBank shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Horizon Bancorp shares are owned 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor TOWN or HBNC?

Horizon Bancorp received 102 more outperform votes than TowneBank when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.41% of users gave Horizon Bancorp an outperform vote while only 55.03% of users gave TowneBank an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
TowneBank	Outperform Votes 208 55.03%	Underperform Votes 170 44.97%
Horizon Bancorp	Outperform Votes 310 57.41%	Underperform Votes 230 42.59%

Summary

TowneBank beats Horizon Bancorp on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.