Regions Financial (RF) Competitors

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) and Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, FITB or RF?

Fifth Third Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Regions Financial. Regions 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	$13.28B	2.16	$2.31B	$3.15	13.67
Regions Financial	$9.37B	2.31	$1.89B	$2.08	11.58

Which has more volatility and risk, FITB or RF?

Fifth Third Bancorp has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Regions Financial has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is FITB or RF a better dividend stock?

Fifth Third Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Regions Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Fifth Third Bancorp pays out 47.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Regions Financial pays out 48.1% 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. Fifth Third Bancorp has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Regions Financial has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate FITB or RF?

Fifth Third Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $47.53, indicating a potential upside of 10.41%. Regions Financial has a consensus target price of $26.15, indicating a potential upside of 8.60%. Given Fifth Third Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Fifth Third Bancorp is more favorable than Regions Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fifth Third Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.84
Regions Financial	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.52

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of FITB or RF?

83.8% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.4% of Regions Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Regions Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is FITB or RF more profitable?

Regions Financial has a net margin of 21.43% compared to Fifth Third Bancorp's net margin of 17.65%. Fifth Third Bancorp's return on equity of 13.64% beat Regions Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fifth Third Bancorp	17.65%	13.64%	1.14%
Regions Financial	21.43%	13.04%	1.36%

Does the media refer more to FITB or RF?

In the previous week, Regions Financial had 1 more articles in the media than Fifth Third Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for Regions Financial and 16 mentions for Fifth Third Bancorp. Regions Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.20 beat Fifth Third Bancorp's score of 1.07 indicating that Regions Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Fifth Third Bancorp	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Regions Financial	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Fifth Third Bancorp beats Regions Financial on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.