United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCBI) & Mid Penn Bancorp (NASDAQ:MPB) Head-To-Head Contrast

Mid Penn Bancorp (NASDAQ:MPB) 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 dividends, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

43.1% of Mid Penn Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.3% of United Community Banks shares are held by institutional investors. 10.7% of Mid Penn Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of United Community Banks shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Mid Penn Bancorp and United Community Banks’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mid Penn Bancorp	13.89%	8.08%	0.83%
United Community Banks	13.62%	8.02%	0.93%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Mid Penn Bancorp and United Community Banks, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mid Penn Bancorp	0	0	2	0	3.00
United Community Banks	0	3	2	0	2.40

Mid Penn Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $26.00, suggesting a potential upside of 18.45%. United Community Banks has a consensus price target of $30.60, suggesting a potential upside of 20.19%. Given United Community Banks’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe United Community Banks is more favorable than Mid Penn Bancorp.

Dividends

Mid Penn Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. United Community Banks pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Mid Penn Bancorp pays out 34.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. United Community Banks pays out 59.7% 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. Mid Penn Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Mid Penn Bancorp has a beta of 0.59, indicating that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Community Banks has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Mid Penn Bancorp and United Community Banks’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mid Penn Bancorp	$166.90 million	2.19	$37.40 million	$2.31	9.50
United Community Banks	$870.01 million	3.49	$187.54 million	$1.54	16.53

United Community Banks has higher revenue and earnings than Mid Penn Bancorp. Mid Penn Bancorp 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 Mid Penn Bancorp on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mid Penn Bancorp

Mid Penn Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Mid Penn Bank that provides commercial banking services to individuals, partnerships, non-profit organizations, and corporations. The company offers various time and demand deposit products, including checking accounts, savings accounts, clubs, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. It also provides a range of loan products comprising mortgage and home equity loans, secured and unsecured commercial and consumer loans, lines of credit, construction financing, farm loans, community development loans, loans to non-profit entities, and local government loans. In addition, the company offers trust, retail investment, wealth management, and insurance services; and provides online banking, telephone banking, cash management, and automated teller services, as well as safe deposit boxes. The company was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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; treasury management; credit cards; payment and commerce solution, equipment finance, investment advisory, and other related financial 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.