Head-To-Head Review: Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria (NYSE:BBVA) and Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria (NYSE:BBVA) and Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria and Huntington Bancshares”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria	$41.77 billion	3.95	$11.89 billion	$2.20	13.43
Huntington Bancshares	$12.48 billion	2.73	$2.21 billion	$1.29	13.07

Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria has higher revenue and earnings than Huntington Bancshares. Huntington Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

3.0% of Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.7% of Huntington Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Huntington Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria and Huntington Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria	27.75%	18.05%	1.27%
Huntington Bancshares	16.64%	11.19%	1.12%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria and Huntington Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria	0	7	1	0	2.12
Huntington Bancshares	1	7	15	1	2.67

Huntington Bancshares has a consensus target price of $20.24, suggesting a potential upside of 20.04%. Given Huntington Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Huntington Bancshares is more favorable than Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria.

Dividends

Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria pays an annual dividend of $1.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Huntington Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria pays out 51.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Huntington Bancshares pays out 48.1% 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.

Volatility & Risk

Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Huntington Bancshares has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria beats Huntington Bancshares on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. provides retail banking, wholesale banking, and asset management services in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and internationally. The company offers savings account, demand deposits, and time deposits; and loan products, such as residential mortgages, other households, credit card loans, loans to enterprises and public sector, as well as consumer finance. It provides insurance and asset management business, including corporate, commercial, SME, payment systems, retail, private and investment banking, pension and life insurance, leasing, factoring, and brokerage. The company provides its products through online and mobile channels. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Bilbao, Spain.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services. It also provides 24-hour grace, asterisk-free checking, money scout, $50 safety zone, standby cash, early pay, instant access, savings goal getter, and Huntington heads up; digitally powered consumer and business financial solutions to consumer lending, regional banking, branch banking, and wealth management customers; direct and indirect consumer loans, as well as dealer finance loans and deposits; and private banking, wealth management and legacy planning through investment and portfolio management, fiduciary administration and trust, institutional custody, and full-service retail brokerage investment services. The company offers equipment financing, asset-based lending, distribution finance, structured lending, and municipal financing solutions, as well as Huntington ChoicePay. In addition, it offers lending, liquidity, treasury management and other payment services, and capital markets; government and non-profits, healthcare, technology and telecommunications, franchises, financial sponsors, and global services; and corporate risk management, institutional sales and trading, debt and equity issuance, and additional advisory services. The company offers its products through a network of channels, including branches and ATMs, online and mobile banking, and through customer call centers to customers in middle market banking, corporate, specialty, and government banking, asset finance, commercial real estate banking, and capital markets. The company was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.