Contrasting Republic Bancorp (NASDAQ:RBCAA) and Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP)

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) and Republic Bancorp (NASDAQ:RBCAA) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.3% of Popular shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.4% of Republic Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of Popular shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 55.9% of Republic Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Popular has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Republic Bancorp has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Popular pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Republic Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Popular pays out 22.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Republic Bancorp pays out 30.6% 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. Popular has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years and Republic Bancorp has raised its dividend for 27 consecutive years. Republic Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Popular and Republic Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Popular	0	1	10	1	3.00
Republic Bancorp	0	1	1	0	2.50

Popular currently has a consensus target price of $168.73, indicating a potential upside of 12.01%. Given Popular’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Popular is more favorable than Republic Bancorp.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Popular and Republic Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Popular	$4.44 billion	2.19	$833.16 million	$13.54	11.12
Republic Bancorp	$521.34 million	3.01	$131.32 million	$6.48	12.32

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

Profitability

This table compares Popular and Republic Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Popular	20.10%	14.53%	1.18%
Republic Bancorp	25.22%	11.32%	1.75%

Summary

Popular beats Republic Bancorp on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Republic Bancorp

Republic Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Republic Bank & Trust Company that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It operates in six segments: Traditional Banking, Warehouse, Mortgage Banking, Tax Refund Solutions, Republic Payment Solutions, and Republic Credit Solutions. The company offers demand, money market accounts, savings, individual retirement accounts, time, brokered, and other certificates of deposit; and retail and commercial mortgage, construction and land development, consumer, aircraft, and marine loans. It also provides credit cards; title insurance and other financial products and services; and private banking, lockbox processing, remote deposit capture, business online banking, account reconciliation, automated clearing house processing, and internet and mobile banking services. In addition, it offers short-term and revolving credit facilities to mortgage bankers through mortgage warehouse lines of credit; mortgage banking; tax refund solutions, which facilitate the receipt and payment of federal and state tax refund products through third-party tax preparers and tax-preparation software providers; payments-related products and services to consumers through third party service providers; and consumer credit products. The company offers its services through full-services banking centers in Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, and Tennessee. Republic Bancorp, Inc. was incorporated in 1974 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.