COLB vs. HWC, ABCB, ISBC, ASB, UCBI, KEY, EWBC, FHN, WBS, and CBSH
Should you be buying Columbia Banking System stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Columbia Banking System include Hancock Whitney (HWC), Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), Investors Bancorp (ISBC), Associated Banc (ASB), United Community Banks (UCBI), KeyCorp (KEY), East West Bancorp (EWBC), First Horizon (FHN), Webster Financial (WBS), and Commerce Bancshares (CBSH). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) and Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, community ranking, valuation, media sentiment, earnings and analyst recommendations.
Columbia Banking System has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hancock Whitney has a beta of 1.31, indicating that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.
92.5% of Columbia Banking System shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.2% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Columbia Banking System shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Columbia Banking System currently has a consensus target price of $22.19, suggesting a potential upside of 15.11%. Hancock Whitney has a consensus target price of $51.88, suggesting a potential upside of 11.01%. Given Columbia Banking System's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Columbia Banking System is more favorable than Hancock Whitney.
Hancock Whitney has a net margin of 19.07% compared to Columbia Banking System's net margin of 16.52%. Hancock Whitney's return on equity of 11.89% beat Columbia Banking System's return on equity.
Columbia Banking System received 213 more outperform votes than Hancock Whitney when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 45.87% of users gave Hancock Whitney an outperform vote while only 44.28% of users gave Columbia Banking System an outperform vote.
Columbia Banking System pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.5%. Hancock Whitney pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Columbia Banking System pays out 61.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hancock Whitney pays out 28.0% 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.
Hancock Whitney has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Columbia Banking System. Columbia Banking System is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hancock Whitney, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Hancock Whitney had 6 more articles in the media than Columbia Banking System. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Hancock Whitney and 7 mentions for Columbia Banking System. Columbia Banking System's average media sentiment score of 1.18 beat Hancock Whitney's score of 1.12 indicating that Columbia Banking System is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Hancock Whitney beats Columbia Banking System on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Columbia Banking System News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for COLB and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding COLB and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Columbia Banking System Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
