Simmons First National (SFNC) Competitors

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) and Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, community ranking, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends and media sentiment.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in WAFD or SFNC?

83.7% of WaFd shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.6% of Simmons First National shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of WaFd shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Simmons First National shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, WAFD or SFNC?

WaFd has higher revenue and earnings than Simmons First National. WaFd 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
WaFd	$1.43B	2.04	$200.04M	$2.48	14.48
Simmons First National	$1.37B	2.22	$175.06M	$1.02	23.64

Do analysts recommend WAFD or SFNC?

WaFd currently has a consensus price target of $38.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.79%. Simmons First National has a consensus price target of $23.00, suggesting a potential downside of 4.60%. Given WaFd's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe WaFd is more favorable than Simmons First National.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WaFd	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

Does the media favor WAFD or SFNC?

In the previous week, WaFd had 9 more articles in the media than Simmons First National. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for WaFd and 7 mentions for Simmons First National. Simmons First National's average media sentiment score of 0.42 beat WaFd's score of 0.29 indicating that Simmons First National is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
WaFd	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Simmons First National	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has more risk & volatility, WAFD or SFNC?

WaFd has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Simmons First National has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is WAFD or SFNC a better dividend stock?

WaFd pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Simmons First National pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. WaFd pays out 41.9% 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. WaFd has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Simmons First National has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Is WAFD or SFNC more profitable?

WaFd has a net margin of 13.97% compared to Simmons First National's net margin of 8.94%. WaFd's return on equity of 9.44% beat Simmons First National's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WaFd	13.97%	9.44%	0.87%
Simmons First National	8.94%	5.15%	0.65%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor WAFD or SFNC?

Simmons First National received 54 more outperform votes than WaFd when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 48.76% of users gave WaFd an outperform vote while only 47.62% of users gave Simmons First National an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
WaFd	Outperform Votes 216 48.76%	Underperform Votes 227 51.24%
Simmons First National	Outperform Votes 270 47.62%	Underperform Votes 297 52.38%

Summary

WaFd beats Simmons First National on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.