TowneBank (TOWN) Competitors

TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) and First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation and media sentiment.

Do analysts prefer TOWN or FHN?

TowneBank presently has a consensus target price of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.82%. First Horizon has a consensus target price of $22.41, suggesting a potential upside of 13.56%. Given TowneBank's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe TowneBank is more favorable than First Horizon.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TowneBank	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
First Horizon	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71

Is TOWN or FHN more profitable?

TowneBank has a net margin of 15.77% compared to First Horizon's net margin of 15.38%. First Horizon's return on equity of 10.10% beat TowneBank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TowneBank	15.77%	7.77%	0.96%
First Horizon	15.38%	10.10%	1.07%

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of TOWN or FHN?

56.0% of TowneBank shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.3% of First Horizon shares are held by institutional investors. 8.1% of TowneBank shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of First Horizon shares are held 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.

Is TOWN or FHN a better dividend stock?

TowneBank pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. First Horizon pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. TowneBank pays out 45.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Horizon pays out 41.7% 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. TowneBank has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. TowneBank is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer TOWN or FHN?

First Horizon received 305 more outperform votes than TowneBank when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 54.88% of users gave TowneBank an outperform vote while only 54.46% of users gave First Horizon an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
TowneBank	Outperform Votes 208 54.88%	Underperform Votes 171 45.12%
First Horizon	Outperform Votes 513 54.46%	Underperform Votes 429 45.54%

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, TOWN or FHN?

First Horizon has higher revenue and earnings than TowneBank. First Horizon is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TowneBank, 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
TowneBank	$717.45M	3.58	$161.76M	$2.36	14.51
First Horizon	$3.09B	3.24	$775M	$1.44	13.70

Does the media favor TOWN or FHN?

In the previous week, First Horizon had 21 more articles in the media than TowneBank. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for First Horizon and 2 mentions for TowneBank. First Horizon's average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat TowneBank's score of 0.84 indicating that First Horizon is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
TowneBank	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
First Horizon	15 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, TOWN or FHN?

TowneBank has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Horizon has a beta of 0.59, meaning that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

First Horizon beats TowneBank on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.