WesBanco (WSBC) Competitors

WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) and Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.

Is WSBC or PNFP more profitable?

WesBanco has a net margin of 15.89% compared to Pinnacle Financial Partners' net margin of 15.48%. Pinnacle Financial Partners' return on equity of 9.04% beat WesBanco's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WesBanco	15.89%	6.30%	0.86%
Pinnacle Financial Partners	15.48%	9.04%	1.08%

Do analysts prefer WSBC or PNFP?

WesBanco currently has a consensus price target of $40.83, suggesting a potential upside of 13.49%. Pinnacle Financial Partners has a consensus price target of $125.18, suggesting a potential upside of 7.22%. Given WesBanco's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WesBanco is more favorable than Pinnacle Financial Partners.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WesBanco	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83
Pinnacle Financial Partners	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.45

Is WSBC or PNFP a better dividend stock?

WesBanco pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Pinnacle Financial Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. WesBanco pays out 66.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pinnacle Financial Partners pays out 16.1% 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. WesBanco has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. WesBanco is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, WSBC or PNFP?

Pinnacle Financial Partners has higher revenue and earnings than WesBanco. WesBanco is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pinnacle Financial Partners, 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
WesBanco	$953.62M	2.52	$151.51M	$2.24	16.06
Pinnacle Financial Partners	$3.07B	2.94	$475.06M	$5.98	19.52

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer WSBC or PNFP?

Pinnacle Financial Partners received 183 more outperform votes than WesBanco when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.35% of users gave Pinnacle Financial Partners an outperform vote while only 51.14% of users gave WesBanco an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
WesBanco	Outperform Votes 269 51.14%	Underperform Votes 257 48.86%
Pinnacle Financial Partners	Outperform Votes 452 60.35%	Underperform Votes 297 39.65%

Does the media favor WSBC or PNFP?

In the previous week, Pinnacle Financial Partners had 9 more articles in the media than WesBanco. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Pinnacle Financial Partners and 2 mentions for WesBanco. Pinnacle Financial Partners' average media sentiment score of 1.46 beat WesBanco's score of 0.67 indicating that Pinnacle Financial Partners is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
WesBanco	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Pinnacle Financial Partners	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in WSBC or PNFP?

61.4% of WesBanco shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.4% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 3.4% of WesBanco shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, WSBC or PNFP?

WesBanco has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pinnacle Financial Partners has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pinnacle Financial Partners beats WesBanco on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.