Contrasting Auburn National Bancorporation (NASDAQ:AUBN) & Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP)

Auburn National Bancorporation (NASDAQ:AUBN) and Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Auburn National Bancorporation and Popular, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Auburn National Bancorporation	0	1	0	0	2.00
Popular	0	2	9	0	2.82

Popular has a consensus target price of $133.78, suggesting a potential upside of 2.76%. Given Popular’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Popular is more favorable than Auburn National Bancorporation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

39.5% of Auburn National Bancorporation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.3% of Popular shares are held by institutional investors. 25.1% of Auburn National Bancorporation shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Popular shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Auburn National Bancorporation and Popular”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Auburn National Bancorporation	$42.21 million	2.14	$6.40 million	$2.05	12.64
Popular	$4.33 billion	2.00	$614.21 million	$11.30	11.52

Popular has higher revenue and earnings than Auburn National Bancorporation. Popular is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Auburn National Bancorporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Auburn National Bancorporation has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Popular has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Auburn National Bancorporation pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Popular pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Auburn National Bancorporation pays out 52.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Popular pays out 26.5% 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. Popular has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Auburn National Bancorporation and Popular’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Auburn National Bancorporation	16.42%	8.48%	0.71%
Popular	17.63%	13.27%	1.04%

Summary

Popular beats Auburn National Bancorporation on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Auburn National Bancorporation

Auburn National Bancorporation, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for AuburnBank that provides various banking products and services in East Alabama. The company offers checking, savings, and transaction deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also provides commercial, financial, agricultural, real estate construction, and consumer loan products; and other financial services. In addition, the company offers automated teller services; debit cards; online banking, bill payment, and other electronic banking services; and safe deposit boxes. Auburn National Bancorporation, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Auburn, Alabama.

About Popular

Popular, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various retail, mortgage, and commercial banking products and services in Puerto Rico, the United States, and the British Virgin Islands. The company provides savings, NOW, money market, and other interest-bearing demand accounts; non-interest bearing demand deposits; and certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial and industrial, commercial multi-family, commercial real estate, and residential mortgage loans; consumer loans, including personal loans, credit cards, automobile loans, home equity lines of credit, and other loans to individual borrowers; construction loans; and lease financing comprising automobile loans/leases. In addition, the company provides investment banking, auto and equipment leasing and financing, broker-dealer, and insurance services; debit cards; and online banking services. Popular, Inc. was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.