Peoples Bancorp (PEBO) Competitors

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

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of PEBO or BUSE?

60.7% of Peoples Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of First Busey shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Peoples Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of First Busey shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, PEBO or BUSE?

Peoples Bancorp has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Busey has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, PEBO or BUSE?

Peoples Bancorp has higher earnings, but lower revenue than First Busey. Peoples Bancorp 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
Peoples Bancorp	$620.14M	1.74	$117.21M	$2.92	10.38
First Busey	$663.36M	3.30	$113.69M	$1.12	21.97

Is PEBO or BUSE a better dividend stock?

Peoples Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. First Busey pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Peoples Bancorp pays out 56.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. 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. Peoples Bancorp has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years and First Busey has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Peoples Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend PEBO or BUSE?

Peoples Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $35.25, suggesting a potential upside of 16.26%. First Busey has a consensus target price of $27.33, suggesting a potential upside of 11.07%. Given Peoples Bancorp's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Peoples Bancorp is more favorable than First Busey.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peoples Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
First Busey	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Is PEBO or BUSE more profitable?

Peoples Bancorp has a net margin of 16.88% compared to First Busey's net margin of 9.48%. Peoples Bancorp's return on equity of 9.46% beat First Busey's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peoples Bancorp	16.88%	9.46%	1.15%
First Busey	9.48%	8.76%	1.04%

Does the media prefer PEBO or BUSE?

In the previous week, Peoples Bancorp and Peoples Bancorp both had 10 articles in the media. First Busey's average media sentiment score of 1.77 beat Peoples Bancorp's score of 1.32 indicating that First Busey is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Peoples Bancorp	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
First Busey	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

Peoples Bancorp beats First Busey on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.