Reviewing Civista Bancshares (NASDAQ:CIVB) & Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Civista Bancshares (NASDAQ:CIVB) and Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.1% of Civista Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Civista Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Civista Bancshares has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wintrust Financial has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Civista Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Wintrust Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Civista Bancshares pays out 27.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wintrust Financial pays out 18.6% 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. Civista Bancshares has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Wintrust Financial has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Civista Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Civista Bancshares and Wintrust Financial”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Civista Bancshares	$151.19 million	1.85	$42.96 million	$2.33	7.64
Wintrust Financial	$2.34 billion	2.85	$622.63 million	$9.67	11.20

Wintrust Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Civista Bancshares. Civista Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wintrust Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Civista Bancshares and Wintrust Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Civista Bancshares	14.48%	9.24%	0.86%
Wintrust Financial	17.02%	12.71%	1.10%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Civista Bancshares and Wintrust Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Civista Bancshares	0	3	1	0	2.25
Wintrust Financial	0	2	10	1	2.92

Civista Bancshares currently has a consensus price target of $18.25, indicating a potential upside of 2.59%. Wintrust Financial has a consensus price target of $118.23, indicating a potential upside of 9.21%. Given Wintrust Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Wintrust Financial is more favorable than Civista Bancshares.

Summary

Wintrust Financial beats Civista Bancshares on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Civista Bancshares

Civista Bancshares, Inc. operates as the financial holding company for Civista Bank that provides community banking services. It collects a range of customer deposits; and offers commercial and agriculture, commercial and residential real estate, farm real estate, real estate construction, consumer, and other loans, as well as letters of credit. The company also holds and manages securities portfolio; leases general equipment; and provides captive insurance products. It operates in North Central, West Central, South Western Ohio, South Eastern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky. The company was formerly known as First Citizens Banc Corp and changed its name to Civista Bancshares, Inc. in May 2015. Civista Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services. It also engages in the retail origination and purchase of residential mortgages; and provision of lending, deposits, and treasury management services to condominium, homeowner, and community associations, as well as asset-based lending for middle-market companies. In addition, this segment offers loan and deposit services to mortgage brokerage companies; lending to restaurant franchisees; direct leasing; small business administration loans; commercial mortgages and construction loans; and financial solutions. It provides personal and commercial banking services primarily to individuals, small to mid-sized businesses, local governmental units, and institutional clients. The Specialty Finance segment offers commercial and life insurance premiums financing for businesses and individuals; accounts receivable financing, value-added, and out-sourced administrative services; other specialty finance services; equipment financing through structured loan and lease products; and property and casualty premium financing; as well as data processing of payrolls, billing, and cash management services to temporary staffing industry. The Wealth Management segment provides wealth management services, such as trust and investment, asset management, tax-deferred exchange, securities brokerage, and retirement plan services. Wintrust Financial Corporation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.