Financial Contrast: Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) & Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK)

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) and Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Wintrust Financial and Equity Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wintrust Financial	0	2	10	1	2.92
Equity Bancshares	0	2	2	0	2.50

Wintrust Financial currently has a consensus price target of $123.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.57%. Equity Bancshares has a consensus price target of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.45%. Given Wintrust Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Wintrust Financial is more favorable than Equity Bancshares.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Wintrust Financial and Equity Bancshares”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wintrust Financial	$2.38 billion	3.16	$622.63 million	$9.55	11.86
Equity Bancshares	$227.58 million	2.81	$7.82 million	$1.10	38.15

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

Profitability

This table compares Wintrust Financial and Equity Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wintrust Financial	16.52%	11.99%	1.07%
Equity Bancshares	6.36%	13.88%	1.23%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.8% of Equity Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of Equity Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Wintrust Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Equity Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Wintrust Financial pays out 18.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Equity Bancshares pays out 54.5% 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. Wintrust Financial has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Wintrust Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

Wintrust Financial has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Equity Bancshares has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Wintrust Financial beats Equity Bancshares on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services. It also engages in the retail origination and purchase of residential mortgages; and provision of lending, deposits, and treasury management services to condominium, homeowner, and community associations, as well as asset-based lending for middle-market companies. In addition, this segment offers loan and deposit services to mortgage brokerage companies; lending to restaurant franchisees; direct leasing; small business administration loans; commercial mortgages and construction loans; and financial solutions. It provides personal and commercial banking services primarily to individuals, small to mid-sized businesses, local governmental units, and institutional clients. The Specialty Finance segment offers commercial and life insurance premiums financing for businesses and individuals; accounts receivable financing, value-added, and out-sourced administrative services; other specialty finance services; equipment financing through structured loan and lease products; and property and casualty premium financing; as well as data processing of payrolls, billing, and cash management services to temporary staffing industry. The Wealth Management segment provides wealth management services, such as trust and investment, asset management, tax-deferred exchange, securities brokerage, and retirement plan services. Wintrust Financial Corporation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.

About Equity Bancshares

Equity Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products. The company's loan products also comprise 1 4 family residential mortgages, agriculture, consumer, residential real estate mortgage, and agricultural real estate and production loans. It also provides debit and credit cards; insurance brokerage; trust and wealth management; online banking solutions, such as access to account balances, online transfers, online bill payment, and electronic delivery of customer statements; mobile banking solutions comprising remote check deposits with mobile bill pay; ATMs; and treasury management, wire transfer, automated clearing house, and stop payment services. In addition, the company offers cash management deposit products, such as lockbox, remote deposit capture, positive pay, reverse positive pay, account reconciliation services, zero balance accounts, and sweep accounts, as well as banking services through telephone, mail, and personal appointments. It operates a network of branches in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Equity Bancshares, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Wichita, Kansas.