Head to Head Survey: Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) & Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT)

Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) and Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Stock Yards Bancorp and Customers Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stock Yards Bancorp	$508.11 million	3.89	$114.54 million	$4.58	14.64
Customers Bancorp	$1.39 billion	1.74	$181.47 million	$4.93	14.38

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Stock Yards Bancorp and Customers Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stock Yards Bancorp	0	4	0	0	2.00
Customers Bancorp	0	4	5	1	2.70

Stock Yards Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $83.67, indicating a potential upside of 24.80%. Customers Bancorp has a consensus price target of $82.88, indicating a potential upside of 16.94%. Given Stock Yards Bancorp’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Stock Yards Bancorp is more favorable than Customers Bancorp.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stock Yards Bancorp	24.50%	13.65%	1.49%
Customers Bancorp	12.43%	13.24%	1.05%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

56.5% of Stock Yards Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.3% of Customers Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 3.4% of Stock Yards Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.9% of Customers Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Stock Yards Bancorp has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Customers Bancorp has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Customers Bancorp beats Stock Yards Bancorp on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Stock Yards Bancorp

Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company that provides various financial services for individuals, corporations, and others in the United States. It operates in two segments, Commercial Banking, and WM&T. The Commercial Banking segment offers a range of loan and deposit products to individual consumers and businesses in all its markets through retail lending, mortgage banking, deposit services, online banking, mobile banking, private banking, commercial lending, commercial real estate lending, leasing, treasury management services, merchant services, international banking, correspondent banking, and other banking services. This segment also provides securities brokerage services through an arrangement with a third party broker-dealer. The WM&T segment provides investment management, financial and retirement planning, and trust and estate services, as well as retirement plan management for businesses and corporations. It provides services in Louisville, central, eastern, and northern Kentucky, as well as Indianapolis, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan markets. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

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.