Prosperity Bancshares (PB) Competitors

Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) and Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, PB or ABCB?

Prosperity Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than Ameris Bancorp. Ameris Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Prosperity 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
Prosperity Bancshares	$1.79B	3.58	$479.39M	$5.50	12.27
Ameris Bancorp	$1.13B	4.21	$358.68M	$5.68	12.17

Do insiders & institutionals believe in PB or ABCB?

80.7% of Prosperity Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Prosperity Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate PB or ABCB?

Prosperity Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $84.57, indicating a potential upside of 25.33%. Ameris Bancorp has a consensus target price of $72.14, indicating a potential upside of 4.40%. Given Prosperity Bancshares' higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Prosperity Bancshares is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prosperity Bancshares	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60
Ameris Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86

Is PB or ABCB a better dividend stock?

Prosperity Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Prosperity Bancshares pays out 42.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameris Bancorp pays out 14.1% 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. Prosperity Bancshares has raised its dividend for 27 consecutive years. Prosperity Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media refer more to PB or ABCB?

In the previous week, Prosperity Bancshares had 12 more articles in the media than Ameris Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Prosperity Bancshares and 12 mentions for Ameris Bancorp. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Prosperity Bancshares' score of 0.87 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Prosperity Bancshares	15 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ameris Bancorp	11 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Is PB or ABCB more profitable?

Prosperity Bancshares has a net margin of 29.37% compared to Ameris Bancorp's net margin of 21.46%. Ameris Bancorp's return on equity of 9.57% beat Prosperity Bancshares' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prosperity Bancshares	29.37%	6.99%	1.33%
Ameris Bancorp	21.46%	9.57%	1.32%

Which has more volatility and risk, PB or ABCB?

Prosperity Bancshares has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ameris Bancorp beats Prosperity Bancshares on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.