Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) Competitors

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (NYSE:SMFG) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, community ranking, dividends and media sentiment.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor BAC or SMFG?

Bank of America received 1897 more outperform votes than Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.92% of users gave Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group an outperform vote while only 64.74% of users gave Bank of America an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Bank of America	Outperform Votes 2145 64.74%	Underperform Votes 1168 35.26%
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	Outperform Votes 248 64.92%	Underperform Votes 134 35.08%

Do analysts prefer BAC or SMFG?

Bank of America presently has a consensus price target of $47.50, suggesting a potential upside of 9.78%. Given Bank of America's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Bank of America is more favorable than Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bank of America	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	4 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.89
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Does the media favor BAC or SMFG?

In the previous week, Bank of America had 107 more articles in the media than Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. MarketBeat recorded 115 mentions for Bank of America and 8 mentions for Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Bank of America's average media sentiment score of 1.03 beat Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's score of 0.75 indicating that Bank of America is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Bank of America	75 Very Positive mention(s)	17 Positive mention(s)	20 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in BAC or SMFG?

70.7% of Bank of America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.8% of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Bank of America shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk and volatility, BAC or SMFG?

Bank of America has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, BAC or SMFG?

Bank of America has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Bank of America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, 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
Bank of America	$103.44B	3.15	$27.13B	$3.36	12.88
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	$5.07T	0.02	$6.12B	$0.91	16.43

Is BAC or SMFG more profitable?

Bank of America has a net margin of 14.10% compared to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's net margin of 12.61%. Bank of America's return on equity of 10.29% beat Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bank of America	14.10%	10.29%	0.84%
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	12.61%	8.52%	0.44%

Is BAC or SMFG a better dividend stock?

Bank of America pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Bank of America pays out 31.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group pays out 12.1% 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. 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 Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group on 18 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.