Analyzing Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) and United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB)

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) and Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for United Community Banks and Amerant Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Community Banks	0	2	4	2	3.00
Amerant Bancorp	0	3	3	0	2.50

United Community Banks currently has a consensus price target of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.97%. Amerant Bancorp has a consensus price target of $30.25, indicating a potential upside of 0.68%. Given United Community Banks’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe United Community Banks is more favorable than Amerant Bancorp.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Community Banks	9.06%	9.66%	1.23%
Amerant Bancorp	10.63%	9.36%	0.86%

Dividends

United Community Banks pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Amerant Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. United Community Banks pays out 88.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Amerant Bancorp pays out 21.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Volatility and Risk

United Community Banks has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amerant Bancorp has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

82.3% of United Community Banks shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.1% of Amerant Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of United Community Banks shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Amerant Bancorp shares are held 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares United Community Banks and Amerant Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Community Banks	$1.54 billion	2.91	$328.10 million	$1.18	31.39
Amerant Bancorp	$676.04 million	1.74	$52.42 million	$1.69	17.78

United Community Banks has higher revenue and earnings than Amerant Bancorp. Amerant 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 Amerant Bancorp on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and other deposit accounts. It 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, the company originate loans partially guaranteed by the SBA and USDA loan programs. Further, it 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, the company offers reinsurance on a property insurance contract; insurance agency services; brokerage services; and payment processing, merchant, wire transfer, private banking, and other related financial services. It operates through a network of 171 branches in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. United Community Banks, Inc. was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Blairsville, Georgia.

About Amerant Bancorp

Amerant Bancorp Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Amerant Bank, N.A. that provides banking products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States and internationally. The company offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; and certificates of deposits. It also provides variable and fixed rate commercial real estate loans; loans secured by owner-occupied properties; loans to domestic and foreign individuals primarily secured by personal residence; working capital loans, asset-based lending, participations in shared national credits, purchased receivables, and small business administration loans; loans to financial institutions and acceptances; and consumer loans and overdrafts, such as automobile, personal, or loans secured by cash or securities and revolving credit card agreements. In addition, the company offers trust and estate planning products and services to high-net-worth customers, brokerage and investment advisory services in global capital markets, and wealth management and fiduciary services. Further, it provides debit and credit cards, night depositories, direct deposits, cashier’s checks, safe deposit boxes, letters of credit, and treasury management services, including wire transfer, remote deposit capture, and automated clearinghouse services; derivative instruments; and online and mobile banking, account balances, statements and other documents, online transfers and bill payment, and electronic delivery of customer statements services, as well as automated teller machines, and banking by mobile devices, telephone, and mail. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 24 banking centers comprising 17 in Florida and 7 in Texas. It also operates loan production offices in Tampa, Florida. The company was formerly known as Mercantil Bank Holding Corporation and changed its name to Amerant Bancorp Inc. in June 2019. Amerant Bancorp Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida.