Union Bankshares (UBSH) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer UBSH or CBSH?

Commerce Bancshares received 32 more outperform votes than Union Bankshares when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 54.45% of users gave Union Bankshares an outperform vote while only 44.10% of users gave Commerce Bancshares an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Union Bankshares	Outperform Votes 263 54.45%	Underperform Votes 220 45.55%
Commerce Bancshares	Outperform Votes 295 44.10%	Underperform Votes 374 55.90%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of UBSH or CBSH?

64.4% of Union Bankshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of Commerce Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Union Bankshares shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Commerce Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend UBSH or CBSH?

Commerce Bancshares has a consensus target price of $63.20, suggesting a potential upside of 4.05%. Given Commerce Bancshares' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Commerce Bancshares 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
Commerce Bancshares	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, UBSH or CBSH?

Commerce Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than Union Bankshares. Union Bankshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Commerce Bancshares, 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	3.59	$146.25M	$2.71	10.22
Commerce Bancshares	$1.69B	4.83	$526.33M	$4.13	14.71

Is UBSH or CBSH a better dividend stock?

Union Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Commerce Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Union Bankshares pays out 33.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Commerce Bancshares pays out 26.6% 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. Commerce Bancshares has increased its dividend for 58 consecutive years.

Is UBSH or CBSH more profitable?

Commerce Bancshares has a net margin of 25.24% compared to Union Bankshares' net margin of 24.34%. Commerce Bancshares' return on equity of 16.31% beat Union Bankshares' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Union Bankshares	24.34%	9.35%	1.33%
Commerce Bancshares	25.24%	16.31%	1.69%

Which has more risk and volatility, UBSH or CBSH?

Union Bankshares has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Commerce Bancshares has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer UBSH or CBSH?

In the previous week, Commerce Bancshares had 23 more articles in the media than Union Bankshares. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Commerce Bancshares and 2 mentions for Union Bankshares. Commerce Bancshares' average media sentiment score of 1.25 beat Union Bankshares' score of 0.00 indicating that Commerce Bancshares is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Union Bankshares	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Commerce Bancshares	17 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Commerce Bancshares beats Union Bankshares on 17 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.