Wintrust Financial (WTFC) Competitors

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) and Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, media sentiment, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and valuation.

Is FITB or WTFC more profitable?

Wintrust Financial has a net margin of 17.52% compared to Fifth Third Bancorp's net margin of 17.43%. Fifth Third Bancorp's return on equity of 14.10% beat Wintrust Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fifth Third Bancorp	17.43%	14.10%	1.16%
Wintrust Financial	17.52%	12.60%	1.13%

Does the media favor FITB or WTFC?

In the previous week, Fifth Third Bancorp had 17 more articles in the media than Wintrust Financial. MarketBeat recorded 32 mentions for Fifth Third Bancorp and 15 mentions for Wintrust Financial. Wintrust Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat Fifth Third Bancorp's score of 0.77 indicating that Wintrust Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Fifth Third Bancorp	15 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Wintrust Financial	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals believe in FITB or WTFC?

83.8% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Fifth Third Bancorp 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 hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts prefer FITB or WTFC?

Fifth Third Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $48.12, suggesting a potential upside of 37.20%. Wintrust Financial has a consensus target price of $132.38, suggesting a potential upside of 28.57%. Given Fifth Third Bancorp's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Fifth Third Bancorp is more favorable than Wintrust Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fifth Third Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.72
Wintrust Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FITB or WTFC?

Fifth Third Bancorp received 274 more outperform votes than Wintrust Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 62.00% of users gave Wintrust Financial an outperform vote while only 56.70% of users gave Fifth Third Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Fifth Third Bancorp	Outperform Votes 757 56.70%	Underperform Votes 578 43.30%
Wintrust Financial	Outperform Votes 483 62.00%	Underperform Votes 296 38.00%

Which has more volatility & risk, FITB or WTFC?

Fifth Third Bancorp has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wintrust Financial has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is FITB or WTFC a better dividend stock?

Fifth Third Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Wintrust Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Fifth Third Bancorp pays out 47.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wintrust Financial pays out 19.4% 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. Fifth Third Bancorp has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Wintrust Financial has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Fifth Third Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, FITB or WTFC?

Fifth Third Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Wintrust Financial. Wintrust Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fifth Third 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
Fifth Third Bancorp	$8.25B	2.84	$2.31B	$3.14	11.17
Wintrust Financial	$2.45B	2.81	$695.04M	$10.31	9.99

Summary

Fifth Third Bancorp beats Wintrust Financial on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.