ISTR vs. AMTB, MCBS, BFST, EQBK, NBBK, MCB, NBN, IBCP, CNCK, and VEL
Should you be buying Investar stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Investar include Amerant Bancorp (AMTB), MetroCity Bankshares (MCBS), Business First Bancshares (BFST), Equity Bancshares (EQBK), NB Bancorp (NBBK), Metropolitan Bank (MCB), Northeast Bank (NBN), Independent Bank (IBCP), Coincheck Group (CNCK), and Velocity Financial (VEL). These companies are all part of the "banking" industry.
Investar vs.
Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) and Amerant Bancorp (NASDAQ:AMTB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings, community ranking and institutional ownership.
Investar has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amerant Bancorp has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.
50.2% of Investar shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.1% of Amerant Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 8.8% of Investar shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Amerant Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Investar pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Amerant Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Investar pays out 19.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Amerant Bancorp pays out -60.0% 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. Investar has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Investar is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Investar received 159 more outperform votes than Amerant Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.79% of users gave Investar an outperform vote while only 47.76% of users gave Amerant Bancorp an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Amerant Bancorp had 2 more articles in the media than Investar. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Amerant Bancorp and 2 mentions for Investar. Investar's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Amerant Bancorp's score of 0.51 indicating that Investar is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Investar presently has a consensus target price of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 14.49%. Amerant Bancorp has a consensus target price of $24.60, indicating a potential upside of 36.67%. Given Amerant Bancorp's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Amerant Bancorp is more favorable than Investar.
Investar has a net margin of 12.81% compared to Amerant Bancorp's net margin of -8.38%. Investar's return on equity of 8.00% beat Amerant Bancorp's return on equity.
Investar has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Amerant Bancorp. Amerant Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Investar, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Investar beats Amerant Bancorp on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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This page (NASDAQ:ISTR) was last updated on 6/11/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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