Analyzing Univest Financial (NASDAQ:UVSP) and Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF)

Univest Financial (NASDAQ:UVSP) and Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Univest Financial and Heartland Financial USA, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Univest Financial	0	2	0	0	2.00
Heartland Financial USA	0	1	3	1	3.00

Univest Financial presently has a consensus price target of $21.00, indicating a potential downside of 22.88%. Heartland Financial USA has a consensus price target of $45.60, indicating a potential downside of 11.97%. Given Heartland Financial USA’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Heartland Financial USA is more favorable than Univest Financial.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

75.1% of Univest Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.6% of Heartland Financial USA shares are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of Univest Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Heartland Financial USA shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Univest Financial and Heartland Financial USA’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Univest Financial	$448.55 million	1.78	$71.10 million	$2.39	11.39
Heartland Financial USA	$580.96 million	3.82	$79.92 million	$1.66	31.20

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

Volatility & Risk

Univest Financial has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heartland Financial USA has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Univest Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Heartland Financial USA pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Univest Financial pays out 35.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heartland Financial USA pays out 72.3% 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. Univest Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Univest Financial and Heartland Financial USA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Univest Financial	14.98%	8.35%	0.89%
Heartland Financial USA	8.17%	11.33%	1.03%

Summary

Heartland Financial USA beats Univest Financial on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Univest Financial

Univest Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Univest Bank and Trust Co. that provides banking products and services primarily in the United States. It operates through three segments: Banking, Wealth Management, and Insurance. The Banking segment offers a range of banking services, such as deposit taking, loan origination and servicing, mortgage banking, other general banking, and equipment lease financing services for individuals, businesses, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations. Its Wealth Management segment provides investment advisory, financial planning, and trust and brokerage services for private families and individuals, municipal pension plans, retirement plans, and trusts and guardianships. The Insurance segment offers commercial property and casualty insurance, employee benefits solutions, personal insurance lines, and human resources consulting services. The company was formerly known as Univest Corporation of Pennsylvania and changed its name to Univest Financial Corporation in January 2019. The company was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Souderton, Pennsylvania.

About Heartland Financial USA

Heartland Financial USA, Inc., a bank holding company, provides commercial, small business, and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, demand deposit accounts, NOW accounts, savings, money market, and individual retirement; certificates of deposit; and other time deposits. It offers loans, including commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, agricultural, small business, and real estate mortgage loans; consumer loans comprising motor vehicle, home improvement, home equity line of credit, and fixed rate home equity and personal lines of credit; and credit cards for commercial, business, and personal use. In addition, the company provides business and personal online banking, and mobile banking; bill payment, remote deposit capture, and treasury management services; debit cards; automated teller machines; and automated clearing house services, wire transfers, insured cash sweeps, zero balance accounts, lockbox, image cash letter, remote deposit capture, commercial cards for travel and entertainment purchasing, merchant services to receive credit card payments, investment sweep accounts, reconciliation services, online invoice processing, foreign exchange and positive pay fraud prevention services for checks and automated clearing house services payments. Further, it offers wealth management, trust services, brokerage services, and fixed rate annuity products; and investment services, including mutual funds, individual retirement products, and education savings products. Heartland Financial USA, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.