Sandy Spring Bancorp (SASR) Competitors

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) and Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and valuation.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, COLB or SASR?

Columbia Banking System has higher revenue and earnings than Sandy Spring Bancorp. Columbia Banking System is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sandy Spring Bancorp, 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
Columbia Banking System	$2.74B	2.18	$348.71M	$2.31	12.37
Sandy Spring Bancorp	$704.60M	2.17	$122.84M	$1.90	17.83

Which has more risk and volatility, COLB or SASR?

Columbia Banking System has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sandy Spring Bancorp has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is COLB or SASR more profitable?

Columbia Banking System has a net margin of 16.15% compared to Sandy Spring Bancorp's net margin of 11.54%. Columbia Banking System's return on equity of 10.13% beat Sandy Spring Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Columbia Banking System	16.15%	10.13%	0.98%
Sandy Spring Bancorp	11.54%	5.71%	0.65%

Do analysts prefer COLB or SASR?

Columbia Banking System currently has a consensus price target of $29.31, indicating a potential upside of 2.55%. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a consensus price target of $28.25, indicating a potential downside of 16.59%. Given Columbia Banking System's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Columbia Banking System is more favorable than Sandy Spring Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Columbia Banking System	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.31
Sandy Spring Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the media prefer COLB or SASR?

In the previous week, Sandy Spring Bancorp had 1 more articles in the media than Columbia Banking System. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Sandy Spring Bancorp and 4 mentions for Columbia Banking System. Sandy Spring Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 0.98 beat Columbia Banking System's score of 0.47 indicating that Sandy Spring Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Columbia Banking System	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Sandy Spring Bancorp	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals believe in COLB or SASR?

92.5% of Columbia Banking System shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.9% of Sandy Spring Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Columbia Banking System shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Sandy Spring Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor COLB or SASR?

Sandy Spring Bancorp received 22 more outperform votes than Columbia Banking System when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 55.98% of users gave Sandy Spring Bancorp an outperform vote while only 42.54% of users gave Columbia Banking System an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Columbia Banking System	Outperform Votes 268 42.54%	Underperform Votes 362 57.46%
Sandy Spring Bancorp	Outperform Votes 290 55.98%	Underperform Votes 228 44.02%

Is COLB or SASR a better dividend stock?

Columbia Banking System pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Sandy Spring Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Columbia Banking System pays out 62.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sandy Spring Bancorp pays out 71.6% 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. Columbia Banking System is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Columbia Banking System beats Sandy Spring Bancorp on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.