Critical Review: FB Financial (NYSE:FBK) & Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC)

FB Financial (NYSE:FBK) and Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for FB Financial and Hancock Whitney, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FB Financial	1	1	3	0	2.40
Hancock Whitney	0	2	5	1	2.88

FB Financial currently has a consensus price target of $53.80, indicating a potential upside of 22.54%. Hancock Whitney has a consensus price target of $61.25, indicating a potential upside of 11.55%. Given FB Financial’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe FB Financial is more favorable than Hancock Whitney.

Dividends

FB Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Hancock Whitney pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. FB Financial pays out 27.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hancock Whitney pays out 33.2% 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. FB Financial has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Hancock Whitney has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

65.4% of FB Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.2% of Hancock Whitney shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of FB Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Hancock Whitney shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares FB Financial and Hancock Whitney”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FB Financial	$482.15 million	4.17	$116.04 million	$2.72	16.14
Hancock Whitney	$1.45 billion	3.24	$460.82 million	$5.42	10.13

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

Risk & Volatility

FB Financial has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hancock Whitney has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares FB Financial and Hancock Whitney’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FB Financial	15.18%	10.43%	1.25%
Hancock Whitney	22.40%	11.56%	1.32%

Summary

Hancock Whitney beats FB Financial on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About FB Financial

FB Financial Corporation operates as a bank holding company for FirstBank that provides a suite of commercial and consumer banking services to businesses, professionals, and individuals. The company operates in segments, such as Banking and Mortgage. It offers checking, demand, money market, and savings accounts; deposit and lending products and services to corporate, commercial, and consumer customers; and time deposits and certificates of deposits, as well as residential mortgage loans. The company also provides owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied real estate commercial, residential real estate 1-4 family mortgage, multi-family residential, commercial and industrial, construction, land acquisition, residential lines of credit, and land development loans; and consumer and other loans, such as car, boat, and other recreational vehicle loans, as well as manufactured homes without real estate and personal lines of credit. In addition, the company offers mortgage banking services through its bank branch network and mortgage banking offices in the southeastern United States; direct-to-consumer internet delivery channel; and trust, insurance, and investment services, as well as online and mobile banking services. The company operates full-service bank branches and limited-service branches locations throughout Tennessee, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, Jackson, Birmingham, Florence, Huntsville, Alabama, Bowling Green, and Kentucky; and mortgage offices throughout the southeastern United States. The company was formerly known as First South Bancorp, Inc. and changed its name to FB Financial Corporation in 2016. FB Financial Corporation was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Hancock Whitney

Hancock Whitney Corporation operates as the financial holding company for Hancock Whitney Bank that provides traditional and online banking services to commercial, small business, and retail customers. It offers various transaction and savings deposit products consisting of brokered deposits, time deposits, and money market accounts; treasury management services, secured and unsecured loan products including revolving credit facilities, and letters of credit and similar financial guarantees; and trust and investment management services to retirement plans, corporations, and individuals, and investment advisory and brokerage products. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans including real and non-real estate loans; construction and land development loans; and residential mortgages, as well as consumer loans. In addition, it offers commercial finance products to middle market and corporate clients, including leases and related structures; facilitates investments in new market tax credit activities and holding certain foreclosed assets; provides customers access to fixed annuity and life insurance products; and underwriting transactions products, as well as debt and mortgage-related securities. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi.