S&T Bancorp (STBA) Competitors

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) and S&T Bancorp (NASDAQ:STBA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Do analysts prefer BUSE or STBA?

First Busey currently has a consensus price target of $27.17, indicating a potential upside of 22.76%. S&T Bancorp has a consensus price target of $42.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.55%. Given First Busey's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe First Busey is more favorable than S&T Bancorp.

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
S&T Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Do institutionals and insiders believe in BUSE or STBA?

56.5% of First Busey shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.2% of S&T Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of First Busey shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of S&T Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, BUSE or STBA?

S&T Bancorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than First Busey. S&T 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
First Busey	$663.36M	2.99	$113.69M	$1.12	19.76
S&T Bancorp	$384.51M	3.56	$131.26M	$3.41	10.48

Is BUSE or STBA more profitable?

S&T Bancorp has a net margin of 23.39% compared to First Busey's net margin of 9.48%. First Busey's return on equity of 9.76% beat S&T Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Busey	9.48%	9.76%	1.11%
S&T Bancorp	23.39%	9.32%	1.35%

Is BUSE or STBA a better dividend stock?

First Busey pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. S&T Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. 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. S&T Bancorp pays out 39.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Busey has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years and S&T Bancorp has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Does the media refer more to BUSE or STBA?

In the previous week, First Busey had 8 more articles in the media than S&T Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for First Busey and 10 mentions for S&T Bancorp. First Busey's average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat S&T Bancorp's score of 0.61 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)	3 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
S&T Bancorp	2 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, BUSE or STBA?

First Busey has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, S&T Bancorp has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

First Busey beats S&T Bancorp on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.