Banco Santander (SAN) Competitors

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, SAN or BAC?

Bank of America has higher revenue and earnings than Banco Santander. Banco Santander is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bank of America, 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
Banco Santander	$63.41B	1.90	$13.61B	$0.87	9.14
Bank of America	$103.44B	3.15	$27.13B	$3.36	12.89

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SAN or BAC?

Bank of America received 1565 more outperform votes than Banco Santander when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.73% of users gave Bank of America an outperform vote while only 49.87% of users gave Banco Santander an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Banco Santander	Outperform Votes 579 49.87%	Underperform Votes 582 50.13%
Bank of America	Outperform Votes 2144 64.73%	Underperform Votes 1168 35.27%

Which has more risk & volatility, SAN or BAC?

Banco Santander has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bank of America has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate SAN or BAC?

Bank of America has a consensus price target of $47.50, indicating a potential upside of 9.71%. Given Bank of America's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Bank of America is more favorable than Banco Santander.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Banco Santander	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Bank of America	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	4 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.89

Is SAN or BAC more profitable?

Banco Santander has a net margin of 15.88% compared to Bank of America's net margin of 14.10%. Banco Santander's return on equity of 11.90% beat Bank of America's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Banco Santander	15.88%	11.90%	0.69%
Bank of America	14.10%	10.29%	0.84%

Does the media prefer SAN or BAC?

In the previous week, Bank of America had 110 more articles in the media than Banco Santander. MarketBeat recorded 114 mentions for Bank of America and 4 mentions for Banco Santander. Bank of America's average media sentiment score of 0.99 beat Banco Santander's score of 0.49 indicating that Bank of America is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Banco Santander	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Bank of America	74 Very Positive mention(s)	16 Positive mention(s)	21 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of SAN or BAC?

9.2% of Banco Santander shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.7% of Bank of America shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.5% of Banco Santander shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Bank of America shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is SAN or BAC a better dividend stock?

Banco Santander pays an annual dividend of $0.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Bank of America pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Banco Santander pays out 20.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bank of America pays out 31.0% 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. Bank of America has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Bank of America is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Bank of America beats Banco Santander on 17 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.