Heritage Commerce (HTBK) Competitors

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) and Heritage Commerce (NASDAQ:HTBK) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Is FRME or HTBK more profitable?

First Merchants has a net margin of 18.76% compared to Heritage Commerce's net margin of 16.12%. First Merchants' return on equity of 9.23% beat Heritage Commerce's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Merchants	18.76%	9.23%	1.12%
Heritage Commerce	16.12%	5.96%	0.76%

Which has more risk & volatility, FRME or HTBK?

First Merchants has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heritage Commerce has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is FRME or HTBK a better dividend stock?

First Merchants pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Heritage Commerce pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. First Merchants pays out 40.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heritage Commerce pays out 78.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. First Merchants has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in FRME or HTBK?

73.9% of First Merchants shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.6% of Heritage Commerce shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of First Merchants shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Heritage Commerce shares are owned 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.

Does the media favor FRME or HTBK?

In the previous week, Heritage Commerce had 1 more articles in the media than First Merchants. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Heritage Commerce and 6 mentions for First Merchants. Heritage Commerce's average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat First Merchants' score of 0.69 indicating that Heritage Commerce is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
First Merchants	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Heritage Commerce	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has higher earnings and valuation, FRME or HTBK?

First Merchants has higher revenue and earnings than Heritage Commerce. First Merchants is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heritage Commerce, 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
First Merchants	$626.71M	3.32	$201.40M	$3.42	10.39
Heritage Commerce	$172.40M	3.09	$40.53M	$0.66	13.12

Do analysts recommend FRME or HTBK?

First Merchants currently has a consensus target price of $48.20, indicating a potential upside of 35.66%. Heritage Commerce has a consensus target price of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 32.79%. Given First Merchants' higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe First Merchants is more favorable than Heritage Commerce.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Merchants	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
Heritage Commerce	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.33

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FRME or HTBK?

First Merchants received 61 more outperform votes than Heritage Commerce when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.26% of users gave First Merchants an outperform vote while only 58.38% of users gave Heritage Commerce an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
First Merchants	Outperform Votes 364 60.26%	Underperform Votes 240 39.74%
Heritage Commerce	Outperform Votes 303 58.38%	Underperform Votes 216 41.62%

Summary

First Merchants beats Heritage Commerce on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.