United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCBI) versus TrustCo Bank Corp NY (NASDAQ:TRST) Head to Head Review

TrustCo Bank Corp NY (NASDAQ:TRST) and United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCBI) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.8% of TrustCo Bank Corp NY shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.0% of United Community Banks shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of TrustCo Bank Corp NY shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of United Community Banks shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for TrustCo Bank Corp NY and United Community Banks, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TrustCo Bank Corp NY	1	0	0	0	1.00
United Community Banks	0	3	2	0	2.40

TrustCo Bank Corp NY currently has a consensus price target of $36.00, indicating a potential upside of 31.39%. United Community Banks has a consensus price target of $30.80, indicating a potential upside of 20.41%. Given TrustCo Bank Corp NY’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe TrustCo Bank Corp NY is more favorable than United Community Banks.

Dividends

TrustCo Bank Corp NY pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. United Community Banks pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. TrustCo Bank Corp NY pays out 36.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. United Community Banks pays out 36.4% 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. TrustCo Bank Corp NY has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and United Community Banks has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares TrustCo Bank Corp NY and United Community Banks’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TrustCo Bank Corp NY	32.40%	12.27%	1.23%
United Community Banks	24.81%	10.79%	1.20%

Volatility and Risk

TrustCo Bank Corp NY has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Community Banks has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares TrustCo Bank Corp NY and United Community Banks’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TrustCo Bank Corp NY	$206.42 million	2.53	$75.23 million	$3.90	7.03
United Community Banks	$931.31 million	3.26	$277.47 million	$2.53	10.11

United Community Banks has higher revenue and earnings than TrustCo Bank Corp NY. TrustCo Bank Corp NY is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United Community Banks, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

United Community Banks beats TrustCo Bank Corp NY on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TrustCo Bank Corp NY

TrustCo Bank Corp NY operates as the holding company for Trustco Bank, a federal savings bank that provides personal and business banking services to individuals, partnerships, and corporations. The company accepts deposits; and offers loans and investments. It also operates as a real estate investment trust that acquires, holds, and manages real estate mortgage assets, including residential mortgage loans and mortgage-backed securities. In addition, the company serves as the executor of estates and trustee of personal trusts; provides asset and wealth management, estate planning and related advice, and custodial services; and acts as trustee for various types of employee benefit plans, and corporate pension and profit-sharing trusts. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Glenville, New York.

About United Community Banks

United Community Banks, Inc. operates as the financial holding company for United Community Bank that provides financial products and services to commercial, retail, government, education, energy, health care, and real estate sectors. It accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and other deposit accounts. The company also offers lending services, including real estate, consumer, and commercial loans, to individuals, small businesses, mid-sized commercial businesses, and non-profit organizations, as well as secured and unsecured, and mortgage loans. In addition, it originates loans partially guaranteed by the SBA and USDA loan programs. Further, the company provides wealth management services comprising financial planning, customized portfolio management, and investment advice; trust services to manage fiduciary assets; non-deposit investment products; and insurance products, including life insurance, long-term care insurance, and tax-deferred annuities, as well as invests in residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, the U.S. treasury, the U.S. agency, and municipal obligations. Additionally, it offers reinsurance on a property insurance contract; insurance agency services; brokerage services; and payment processing, merchant, wire transfer, private banking, and other related financial services. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Blairsville, Georgia.