Heritage Commerce (HTBK) Competitors

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) and Heritage Commerce (NASDAQ:HTBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Is BUSE or HTBK more profitable?

Heritage Commerce has a net margin of 15.00% compared to First Busey's net margin of 9.48%. First Busey's return on equity of 9.76% beat Heritage Commerce's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Busey	9.48%	9.76%	1.11%
Heritage Commerce	15.00%	6.62%	0.82%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in BUSE or HTBK?

56.5% of First Busey shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.6% of Heritage Commerce shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of First Busey shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Heritage Commerce shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts rate BUSE or HTBK?

First Busey currently has a consensus price target of $27.17, suggesting a potential upside of 22.76%. Heritage Commerce has a consensus price target of $10.67, suggesting a potential upside of 15.32%. Given First Busey's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe First Busey is more favorable than Heritage Commerce.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Busey	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Heritage Commerce	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is BUSE or HTBK a better dividend stock?

First Busey pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Heritage Commerce pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. First Busey pays out 89.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Heritage Commerce pays out 82.5% 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 raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Heritage Commerce is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media refer more to BUSE or HTBK?

In the previous week, First Busey had 6 more articles in the media than Heritage Commerce. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for First Busey and 10 mentions for Heritage Commerce. First Busey's average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat Heritage Commerce's score of 0.74 indicating that First Busey is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
First Busey	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Heritage Commerce	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better earnings and valuation, BUSE or HTBK?

First Busey has higher revenue and earnings than Heritage Commerce. Heritage Commerce 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
First Busey	$663.36M	2.99	$113.69M	$1.12	19.76
Heritage Commerce	$184.05M	3.10	$40.53M	$0.63	14.68

Which has more risk & volatility, BUSE or HTBK?

First Busey has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heritage Commerce has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

First Busey beats Heritage Commerce on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.