Mercantile Bank (MBWM) Competitors

Mercantile Bank (NASDAQ:MBWM) and Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, dividends, valuation, profitability, community ranking, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of MBWM or SFNC?

58.6% of Mercantile Bank shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.6% of Simmons First National shares are held by institutional investors. 3.1% of Mercantile Bank shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Simmons First National shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is MBWM or SFNC a better dividend stock?

Mercantile Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Simmons First National pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Mercantile Bank pays out 28.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Simmons First National pays out 82.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Mercantile Bank has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Simmons First National has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Do analysts recommend MBWM or SFNC?

Mercantile Bank presently has a consensus price target of $54.50, indicating a potential upside of 23.28%. Simmons First National has a consensus price target of $23.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.23%. Given Mercantile Bank's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Mercantile Bank is more favorable than Simmons First National.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mercantile Bank	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
Simmons First National	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has more volatility & risk, MBWM or SFNC?

Mercantile Bank has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Simmons First National has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to MBWM or SFNC?

In the previous week, Mercantile Bank had 7 more articles in the media than Simmons First National. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Mercantile Bank and 4 mentions for Simmons First National. Mercantile Bank's average media sentiment score of 0.61 beat Simmons First National's score of 0.32 indicating that Mercantile Bank is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Mercantile Bank	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Simmons First National	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, MBWM or SFNC?

Simmons First National has higher revenue and earnings than Mercantile Bank. Mercantile Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Simmons First National, 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
Mercantile Bank	$303.50M	2.35	$82.22M	$4.98	8.88
Simmons First National	$1.37B	2.09	$175.06M	$1.02	22.27

Is MBWM or SFNC more profitable?

Mercantile Bank has a net margin of 22.77% compared to Simmons First National's net margin of 8.94%. Mercantile Bank's return on equity of 14.59% beat Simmons First National's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mercantile Bank	22.77%	14.59%	1.43%
Simmons First National	8.94%	5.15%	0.65%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer MBWM or SFNC?

Mercantile Bank received 41 more outperform votes than Simmons First National when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.90% of users gave Mercantile Bank an outperform vote while only 47.62% of users gave Simmons First National an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Mercantile Bank	Outperform Votes 311 58.90%	Underperform Votes 217 41.10%
Simmons First National	Outperform Votes 270 47.62%	Underperform Votes 297 52.38%

Summary

Mercantile Bank beats Simmons First National on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.