Reviewing Commercial National Financial (OTCMKTS:CEFC) and UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF)

Commercial National Financial (OTCMKTS:CEFC) and UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Commercial National Financial and UMB Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Commercial National Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00
UMB Financial	0	2	10	2	3.00

UMB Financial has a consensus target price of $138.18, suggesting a potential upside of 20.12%. Given UMB Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe UMB Financial is more favorable than Commercial National Financial.

Risk and Volatility

Commercial National Financial has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UMB Financial has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.8% of UMB Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.0% of Commercial National Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of UMB Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Commercial National Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. UMB Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Commercial National Financial pays out 35.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UMB Financial pays out 18.8% 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 32 consecutive years.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Commercial National Financial	23.48%	N/A	N/A
UMB Financial	16.90%	12.14%	1.19%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Commercial National Financial and UMB Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Commercial National Financial	$28.15 million	1.96	$6.61 million	$1.67	8.38
UMB Financial	$4.14 billion	2.11	$702.40 million	$9.13	12.60

UMB Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Commercial National Financial. Commercial National 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.

Summary

UMB Financial beats Commercial National Financial on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commercial National Financial

Commercial National Financial Corporation operates as the holding company for Commercial Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, agricultural businesses, commercial businesses, and light industries in Michigan. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking and savings accounts, individual retirement accounts, certificates of deposit, and health savings accounts. It also offers personal loan products, such as automobile loans, recreational vehicle loans, personal lines of credit, and unsecured term loans, as well as home equity loans and mortgage loans; and business loans, including secured lines of credit, business equity line of credit, SBA loans, equipment loans, real estate loans, vehicle loans, term loans, USDA loan programs, and capital access loan programs. In addition, the company provides other services comprising business VISA check cards, debit and ATM cards, business statement savings, business certificates of deposit, merchant services, night depository, telephone banking, online banking, e-statements, direct deposit of payroll for employees, child support payments, collection of receivables, and remote deposit capture, as well as treasury services. It provides its services through offices located in Barry, Gratiot, Ingham, Kent, and Montcalm counties in Michigan. The company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Ithaca, Michigan.

About UMB Financial

UMB Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company that provides banking services and asset servicing in the United States and internationally. 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 fund, asset management, and healthcare service to institutional clients; and fund administration and accounting, investor service and transfer agency, mutual fund service, 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 investment advisory, custody, and trust services. It operates through a network of branches and offices. The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.