Comparing Renasant (NASDAQ:RNST) and Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF)

Renasant (NASDAQ:RNST) and Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Renasant and Heartland Financial USA”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Renasant	$910.39 million	2.50	$144.68 million	$3.07	11.68
Heartland Financial USA	$932.87 million	2.97	$79.92 million	$1.79	36.08

Renasant has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Heartland Financial USA. Renasant is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heartland Financial USA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Renasant pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Heartland Financial USA pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Renasant pays out 28.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heartland Financial USA pays out 67.0% 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. Renasant is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Renasant and Heartland Financial USA, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Renasant	0	2	4	0	2.67
Heartland Financial USA	0	1	3	1	3.00

Renasant presently has a consensus price target of $40.17, suggesting a potential upside of 12.06%. Heartland Financial USA has a consensus price target of $45.60, suggesting a potential downside of 29.40%. Given Renasant’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Renasant is more favorable than Heartland Financial USA.

Risk and Volatility

Renasant has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heartland Financial USA has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Renasant and Heartland Financial USA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Renasant	16.83%	6.70%	0.92%
Heartland Financial USA	8.79%	10.81%	1.09%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

77.3% of Renasant shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.6% of Heartland Financial USA shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Renasant shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Heartland Financial USA shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Renasant beats Heartland Financial USA on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Renasant

Renasant Corporation operates as a bank holding company for Renasant Bank that provides a range of financial, wealth management, fiduciary, and insurance services to retail and commercial customers. The company operates through Community Banks, Insurance, and Wealth Management segments. The Community Banks segment offers checking and savings accounts, business and personal loans, asset-based lending, and factoring equipment leasing services, as well as safe deposit and night depository facilities. It also provides commercial, financial, and agricultural loans; equipment financing and leasing; real estate1-4 family mortgage; real estatecommercial mortgage; real estateconstruction loans for the construction of single family residential properties, multi-family properties, and commercial projects; installment loans to individuals; and interim construction loans, as well as automated teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, call center, and treasury management services. The Insurance segment provides insurance agency services, such as commercial and personal insurance products through insurance carriers. The Wealth Management segment offers a range of wealth management and fiduciary services, including administration and management of trust accounts, such as personal and corporate benefit accounts, and custodial accounts, as well as accounting and money management for trust accounts; annuities, mutual funds, and other investment services through a third party broker-dealer; administrative and compliance services; and qualified retirement plans, IRAs, employee benefit plans, personal trusts, and estates. Renasant Corporation was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.

About Heartland Financial USA

Heartland Financial USA, Inc., a bank holding company, provides commercial, small business, and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, demand deposit accounts, NOW accounts, savings, money market, and individual retirement; certificates of deposit; and other time deposits. It offers loans, including commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, agricultural, small business, and real estate mortgage loans; consumer loans comprising motor vehicle, home improvement, home equity line of credit, and fixed rate home equity and personal lines of credit; and credit cards for commercial, business, and personal use. In addition, the company provides business and personal online banking, and mobile banking; bill payment, remote deposit capture, and treasury management services; debit cards; automated teller machines; and automated clearing house services, wire transfers, insured cash sweeps, zero balance accounts, lockbox, image cash letter, remote deposit capture, commercial cards for travel and entertainment purchasing, merchant services to receive credit card payments, investment sweep accounts, reconciliation services, online invoice processing, foreign exchange and positive pay fraud prevention services for checks and automated clearing house services payments. Further, it offers wealth management, trust services, brokerage services, and fixed rate annuity products; and investment services, including mutual funds, individual retirement products, and education savings products. Heartland Financial USA, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.