Stellarone (STEL) Competitors

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

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, HOMB or STEL?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has higher revenue and earnings than Stellarone. Stellarone is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR), 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)	$1.34B	4.55	$392.93M	$1.94	15.85
Stellarone	$615.38M	2.58	$130.50M	$2.19	13.56

Which has more volatility & risk, HOMB or STEL?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stellarone has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HOMB or STEL?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) received 425 more outperform votes than Stellarone when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.22% of users gave Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) an outperform vote while only 56.72% of users gave Stellarone an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	Outperform Votes 501 60.22%	Underperform Votes 331 39.78%
Stellarone	Outperform Votes 76 56.72%	Underperform Votes 58 43.28%

Do analysts prefer HOMB or STEL?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) currently has a consensus target price of $28.25, indicating a potential downside of 8.13%. Stellarone has a consensus target price of $28.33, indicating a potential downside of 4.60%. Given Stellarone's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Stellarone is more favorable than Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR).

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)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Stellarone	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Does the media favor HOMB or STEL?

In the previous week, Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) had 7 more articles in the media than Stellarone. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) and 1 mentions for Stellarone. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)'s average media sentiment score of 0.91 beat Stellarone's score of 0.00 indicating that Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Stellarone	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is HOMB or STEL a better dividend stock?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) pays an annual dividend of $0.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Stellarone pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) pays out 40.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Stellarone pays out 23.7% 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. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in HOMB or STEL?

67.3% of Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.2% of Stellarone shares are held by institutional investors. 7.7% of Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.9% of Stellarone shares are held 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.

Is HOMB or STEL more profitable?

Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR) has a net margin of 26.69% compared to Stellarone's net margin of 18.60%. Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)'s return on equity of 10.33% beat Stellarone's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Home Bancshares, Inc. (Conway, AR)	26.69%	10.33%	1.75%
Stellarone	18.60%	7.62%	1.11%

Summary

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