Harleysville Financial (OTCMKTS:HARL) versus UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF) Critical Survey

Harleysville Financial (OTCMKTS:HARL) and UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF) are both financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Harleysville Financial and UMB Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Harleysville Financial	0	0	0	0	N/A
UMB Financial	0	4	1	0	2.20

UMB Financial has a consensus price target of $82.00, indicating a potential upside of 33.81%. Given UMB Financial’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe UMB Financial is more favorable than Harleysville Financial.

Volatility & Risk

Harleysville Financial has a beta of 0.21, suggesting that its stock price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UMB Financial has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Harleysville Financial and UMB Financial’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Harleysville Financial	$29.90 million	2.75	$8.79 million	$3.24	6.94
UMB Financial	$1.34 billion	2.21	$431.68 million	$7.62	8.04

UMB Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Harleysville Financial. Harleysville Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than UMB Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.0% of UMB Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.5% of Harleysville Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.8% of UMB Financial shares are owned 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.

Dividends

Harleysville Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. UMB Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Harleysville Financial pays out 37.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UMB Financial pays out 19.9% 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. UMB Financial has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Harleysville Financial and UMB Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Harleysville Financial	33.67%	14.34%	1.40%
UMB Financial	18.00%	13.85%	0.95%

Summary

UMB Financial beats Harleysville Financial on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Harleysville Financial

Harleysville Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Harleysville Bank that provides various banking products and services primarily in southeastern Pennsylvania. The company offers various deposit products, including savings, money market, and checking accounts; and certificates of deposit. It also provides auto, mortgage, home equity, savings account, business term, and commercial real estate loans, as well as line of credit. In addition, the company offers online banking and bill payment, mobile banking, debit card, telephone banking, remote deposit, automated clearing house processing, sweep account, zero balance account, employee, and other cash management services. Further, it provides investment services, such as financial consultation, cash and wealth management, education planning, investment strategy, insurance, retirement and estate planning, financial and goal planning, and asset allocation services, as well as offers investment products, such as fixed and variable annuities, mutual funds, life insurances, stocks and bonds, tax-advantaged investments, long-term care insurances, disability insurances, retirement plans/individual retirement accounts, wrap accounts, and unit investment trusts. Additionally, the company offers consumer loans, including residential mortgage, construction, and non-real estate consumer loans; and commercial loans, such as commercial mortgages and commercial business loans. The company was formerly known as Harleysville Savings Financial Corporation and changed its name to Harleysville Financial Corporation in May 2017. The company was incorporated in 1915 and is headquartered in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.

About UMB Financial

UMB Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for the UMB Bank that provides various banking and other financial services. The Commercial Banking segment provides commercial loans and credit card; commercial real estate financing; letters of credit; loan syndication, and consultative service; various business solutions including asset-based lending, mezzanine debt, and minority equity investment; and treasury management service, such as depository service, account reconciliation, cash management tool, accounts payable and receivable solution, electronic fund transfer and automated payment, controlled disbursement, lockbox service, and remote deposit capture service. The Institutional Banking segment offers asset management and healthcare service provided to institutional client; and fund administration and accounting, investor service and transfer agency, custody, alternative investment service, fixed income sale, trading and underwriting, and corporate trust and escrow service, as well as institutional custody service. This segment also provides healthcare payment solution includes custodial service for health saving accounts and private label, multipurpose debit cards to insurance carriers, third-party administrator, software companies, employers, and financial institutions. The Personal Banking segment offers deposit account, retail credit card, private banking, installment loan, home equity line of credit, residential mortgage, as well as internet banking, ATM network, private banking, brokerage and insurance service, and advisory and trust service. It operates through a network of branches and offices in the states of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Nebraska, Iowa, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Indiana, Utah, Minnesota, California, and Wisconsin. The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.