HBT Financial (HBT) Competitors

Mercantile Bank (NASDAQ:MBWM) and HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Do analysts prefer MBWM or HBT?

Mercantile Bank presently has a consensus target price of $52.00, suggesting a potential upside of 25.54%. HBT Financial has a consensus target price of $24.60, suggesting a potential upside of 16.20%. Given Mercantile Bank's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Mercantile Bank is more favorable than HBT Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mercantile Bank	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
HBT Financial	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer MBWM or HBT?

Mercantile Bank received 284 more outperform votes than HBT Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.82% of users gave Mercantile Bank an outperform vote while only 42.62% of users gave HBT Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Mercantile Bank	Outperform Votes 310 58.82%	Underperform Votes 217 41.18%
HBT Financial	Outperform Votes 26 42.62%	Underperform Votes 35 57.38%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of MBWM or HBT?

58.6% of Mercantile Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.6% of HBT Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Mercantile Bank shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 59.8% of HBT Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, MBWM or HBT?

Mercantile Bank has higher revenue and earnings than HBT Financial. Mercantile Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HBT Financial, 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
Mercantile Bank	$230.14M	2.93	$82.22M	$5.16	8.10
HBT Financial	$221.31M	3.02	$65.84M	$2.26	9.37

Which has more volatility & risk, MBWM or HBT?

Mercantile Bank has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HBT Financial has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer MBWM or HBT?

In the previous week, Mercantile Bank had 2 more articles in the media than HBT Financial. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Mercantile Bank and 3 mentions for HBT Financial. Mercantile Bank's average media sentiment score of 0.87 beat HBT Financial's score of -0.29 indicating that Mercantile Bank is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Mercantile Bank	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
HBT Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is MBWM or HBT a better dividend stock?

Mercantile Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. HBT Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Mercantile Bank pays out 27.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. HBT Financial pays out 33.6% 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. Mercantile Bank has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Is MBWM or HBT more profitable?

HBT Financial has a net margin of 25.61% compared to Mercantile Bank's net margin of 23.99%. HBT Financial's return on equity of 15.53% beat Mercantile Bank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mercantile Bank	23.99%	15.52%	1.50%
HBT Financial	25.61%	15.53%	1.51%

Summary

Mercantile Bank beats HBT Financial on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.