Financial Review: Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) and Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI)

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) and Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

81.2% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.3% of Customers Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of Customers Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Hancock Whitney and Customers Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hancock Whitney	0	2	4	1	2.86
Customers Bancorp	0	4	3	1	2.63

Hancock Whitney currently has a consensus price target of $66.7143, suggesting a potential upside of 5.08%. Customers Bancorp has a consensus price target of $69.25, suggesting a potential upside of 0.76%. Given Hancock Whitney’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Hancock Whitney is more favorable than Customers Bancorp.

Volatility and Risk

Hancock Whitney has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Customers Bancorp has a beta of 1.59, suggesting that its stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Hancock Whitney and Customers Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hancock Whitney	$1.47 billion	3.67	$460.82 million	$5.43	11.69
Customers Bancorp	$655.32 million	3.32	$181.47 million	$4.04	17.01

Hancock Whitney has higher revenue and earnings than Customers Bancorp. Hancock Whitney is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Customers Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Hancock Whitney and Customers Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hancock Whitney	23.28%	11.21%	1.35%
Customers Bancorp	10.77%	11.98%	0.93%

Summary

Hancock Whitney beats Customers Bancorp on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hancock Whitney

Hancock Whitney Corporation operates as the financial holding company for Hancock Whitney Bank that provides traditional and online banking services to commercial, small business, and retail customers. It offers various transaction and savings deposit products consisting of brokered deposits, time deposits, and money market accounts; treasury management services, secured and unsecured loan products including revolving credit facilities, and letters of credit and similar financial guarantees; and trust and investment management services to retirement plans, corporations, and individuals, and investment advisory and brokerage products. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans including real and non-real estate loans; construction and land development loans; and residential mortgages, as well as consumer loans. In addition, it offers commercial finance products to middle market and corporate clients, including leases and related structures; facilitates investments in new market tax credit activities and holding certain foreclosed assets; provides customers access to fixed annuity and life insurance products; and underwriting transactions products, as well as debt and mortgage-related securities. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi.

About Customers Bancorp

Customers Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Customers Bank that provides financial products and services to individual consumers, and small and middle market businesses. The company provides deposit banking products, which includes commercial and consumer checking, non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing demand, MMDA, savings, and time deposit accounts. Its lending business offers commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and multifamily and residential mortgage loans; SBA lending and financing; specialty lending includes fund finance, real estate specialty finance, technology and venture, and healthcare and financial institutions group; commercial loans to mortgage companies, and commercial equipment financing; and fund finance, such as variable rate loans secured by collateral pools to private debt funds; and cash management services. In addition, the company provides digital banking including Banking-as-a-Service to fintech companies, payments and treasury services to businesses, and consumer loans through fintech companies and the TassatPay, a blockchain-based instant B2B payments platform which offers instant payments including over-the-counter desks, exchanges, liquidity providers, market makers, funds, and other B2B verticals. Further, it offers mobile phone and internet banking, wire transfers, electronic bill payment, lock box, remote deposit capture, courier, merchant processing, cash vault, controlled disbursements, positive pay, and cash management services, such as account reconciliation, collections, and sweep accounts. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in West Reading, Pennsylvania.