Wintrust Financial (WTFC) Competitors

M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB) and Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and media sentiment.

Do analysts recommend MTB or WTFC?

M&T Bank currently has a consensus price target of $215.50, suggesting a potential upside of 13.73%. Wintrust Financial has a consensus price target of $128.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.08%. Given M&T Bank's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe M&T Bank is more favorable than Wintrust Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
M&T Bank	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38
Wintrust Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92

Is MTB or WTFC a better dividend stock?

M&T Bank pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Wintrust Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. M&T Bank pays out 40.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wintrust Financial pays out 18.8% 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. Wintrust Financial has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor MTB or WTFC?

Wintrust Financial received 231 more outperform votes than M&T Bank when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.19% of users gave Wintrust Financial an outperform vote while only 45.90% of users gave M&T Bank an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
M&T Bank	Outperform Votes 246 45.90%	Underperform Votes 290 54.10%
Wintrust Financial	Outperform Votes 477 62.19%	Underperform Votes 290 37.81%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, MTB or WTFC?

M&T Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Wintrust Financial. Wintrust Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than M&T Bank, 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
M&T Bank	$9.17B	3.43	$2.74B	$13.51	14.03
Wintrust Financial	$2.38B	3.46	$622.63M	$9.55	13.00

Which has more volatility and risk, MTB or WTFC?

M&T Bank has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wintrust Financial has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is MTB or WTFC more profitable?

M&T Bank has a net margin of 17.82% compared to Wintrust Financial's net margin of 16.52%. Wintrust Financial's return on equity of 11.99% beat M&T Bank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
M&T Bank	17.82%	9.52%	1.15%
Wintrust Financial	16.52%	11.99%	1.07%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in MTB or WTFC?

84.7% of M&T Bank shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of M&T Bank shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor MTB or WTFC?

In the previous week, Wintrust Financial had 1 more articles in the media than M&T Bank. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Wintrust Financial and 10 mentions for M&T Bank. Wintrust Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.13 beat M&T Bank's score of 0.78 indicating that Wintrust Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
M&T Bank	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Wintrust Financial	6 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Wintrust Financial beats M&T Bank on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.