Sandy Spring Bancorp (SASR) Competitors

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) (NYSE:HOMB) and Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, HOMB or SASR?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has higher revenue and earnings than Sandy Spring Bancorp. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) 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
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	$1.00B	5.24	$402.24M	$2.02	13.07
Sandy Spring Bancorp	$404.22M	3.11	$19.93M	$0.45	61.93

Is HOMB or SASR a better dividend stock?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) pays an annual dividend of $0.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Sandy Spring Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) pays out 38.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sandy Spring Bancorp pays out 302.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years.

Do analysts prefer HOMB or SASR?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) presently has a consensus target price of $32.00, suggesting a potential upside of 21.19%. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a consensus target price of $29.33, suggesting a potential upside of 5.25%. Given Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)'s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) is more favorable than Sandy Spring Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60
Sandy Spring Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has more volatility & risk, HOMB or SASR?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sandy Spring Bancorp has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HOMB or SASR?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) received 213 more outperform votes than Sandy Spring Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.02% of users gave Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) an outperform vote while only 54.82% of users gave Sandy Spring Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	Outperform Votes 503 60.02%	Underperform Votes 335 39.98%
Sandy Spring Bancorp	Outperform Votes 290 54.82%	Underperform Votes 239 45.18%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of HOMB or SASR?

67.3% of Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.9% of Sandy Spring Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.3% of Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Sandy Spring Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Is HOMB or SASR more profitable?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has a net margin of 27.39% compared to Sandy Spring Bancorp's net margin of 2.65%. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)'s return on equity of 10.31% beat Sandy Spring Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	27.39%	10.31%	1.77%
Sandy Spring Bancorp	2.65%	5.31%	0.61%

Does the media prefer HOMB or SASR?

In the previous week, Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) had 15 more articles in the media than Sandy Spring Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) and 5 mentions for Sandy Spring Bancorp. Sandy Spring Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.17 beat Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)'s score of 0.85 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
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	7 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Sandy Spring Bancorp	3 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) beats Sandy Spring Bancorp on 17 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.