Heritage Commerce (HTBK) Competitors

Heritage Commerce (NASDAQ:HTBK) and First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, profitability and risk.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, HTBK or FRME?

First Merchants has higher revenue and earnings than Heritage Commerce. First Merchants is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heritage Commerce, 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
Heritage Commerce	$176.22M	3.18	$40.53M	$0.68	13.38
First Merchants	$633.33M	3.47	$201.40M	$3.56	10.57

Is HTBK or FRME more profitable?

First Merchants has a net margin of 18.76% compared to Heritage Commerce's net margin of 16.12%. First Merchants' return on equity of 9.23% beat Heritage Commerce's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heritage Commerce	16.12%	5.96%	0.76%
First Merchants	18.76%	9.23%	1.12%

Is HTBK or FRME a better dividend stock?

Heritage Commerce pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. First Merchants pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Heritage Commerce pays out 76.5% 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 Merchants pays out 40.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Merchants has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in HTBK or FRME?

75.6% of Heritage Commerce shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.9% of First Merchants shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Heritage Commerce shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of First Merchants shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, HTBK or FRME?

Heritage Commerce has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Merchants has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to HTBK or FRME?

In the previous week, First Merchants had 9 more articles in the media than Heritage Commerce. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for First Merchants and 4 mentions for Heritage Commerce. Heritage Commerce's average media sentiment score of 1.67 beat First Merchants' score of 1.06 indicating that Heritage Commerce is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Heritage Commerce	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
First Merchants	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HTBK or FRME?

First Merchants received 61 more outperform votes than Heritage Commerce when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.40% of users gave First Merchants an outperform vote while only 58.43% of users gave Heritage Commerce an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Heritage Commerce	Outperform Votes 305 58.43%	Underperform Votes 217 41.57%
First Merchants	Outperform Votes 366 60.40%	Underperform Votes 240 39.60%

Do analysts rate HTBK or FRME?

Heritage Commerce currently has a consensus price target of $11.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.88%. First Merchants has a consensus price target of $46.40, suggesting a potential upside of 23.27%. Given First Merchants' higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe First Merchants is more favorable than Heritage Commerce.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Heritage Commerce	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
First Merchants	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80

Summary

First Merchants beats Heritage Commerce on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.