Union Bankshares (UBSH) Competitors

Union Bankshares (NASDAQ:UBSH) and SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, community ranking, earnings and media sentiment.

Is UBSH or SSB a better dividend stock?

Union Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. SouthState pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Union Bankshares pays out 33.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SouthState pays out 34.1% 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. SouthState has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Union Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of UBSH or SSB?

64.4% of Union Bankshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of SouthState shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Union Bankshares shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of SouthState shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has better valuation & earnings, UBSH or SSB?

SouthState has higher revenue and earnings than Union Bankshares. Union Bankshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SouthState, 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
Union Bankshares	$633.03M	3.80	$146.25M	$2.71	10.83
SouthState	$1.88B	4.72	$534.78M	$6.33	13.84

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in UBSH or SSB?

SouthState received 248 more outperform votes than Union Bankshares when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.01% of users gave SouthState an outperform vote while only 54.45% of users gave Union Bankshares an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Union Bankshares	Outperform Votes 263 54.45%	Underperform Votes 220 45.55%
SouthState	Outperform Votes 511 62.01%	Underperform Votes 313 37.99%

Do analysts rate UBSH or SSB?

SouthState has a consensus target price of $116.27, suggesting a potential upside of 32.73%. Given SouthState's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SouthState is more favorable than Union Bankshares.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Union Bankshares	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
SouthState	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.09

Does the media prefer UBSH or SSB?

In the previous week, SouthState had 15 more articles in the media than Union Bankshares. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for SouthState and 1 mentions for Union Bankshares. SouthState's average media sentiment score of 1.41 beat Union Bankshares' score of 0.00 indicating that SouthState is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Union Bankshares	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
SouthState	12 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is UBSH or SSB more profitable?

Union Bankshares has a net margin of 24.34% compared to SouthState's net margin of 22.38%. SouthState's return on equity of 9.62% beat Union Bankshares' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Union Bankshares	24.34%	9.35%	1.33%
SouthState	22.38%	9.62%	1.21%

Which has more risk & volatility, UBSH or SSB?

Union Bankshares has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SouthState has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SouthState beats Union Bankshares on 16 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.