Reviewing Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) & Regions Financial (NYSE:RF)

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Regions Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Regions Financial pays out 43.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays out 48.4% 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. Regions Financial has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Regions Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Regions Financial and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Regions Financial	4	10	6	0	2.10
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	0	2	3	0	2.60

Regions Financial currently has a consensus target price of $32.24, suggesting a potential upside of 3.96%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a consensus target price of $35.50, suggesting a potential upside of 2.19%. Given Regions Financial’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Regions Financial is more favorable than Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

79.4% of Regions Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.8% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Regions Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Regions Financial has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Regions Financial and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Regions Financial	23.33%	12.88%	1.42%
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	15.11%	8.68%	1.14%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Regions Financial and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Regions Financial	$9.61 billion	2.75	$2.16 billion	$2.45	12.66
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	$935.52 million	3.61	$144.88 million	$1.57	22.13

Regions Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida. Regions Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Regions Financial beats Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Regions Financial

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services. It serves corporate, middle market, and commercial real estate developers and investors. The Consumer Bank segment provides consumer banking products and services related to residential first mortgages, home equity lines and loans, consumer credit cards, and other consumer loans, as well as deposits. The Wealth Management segment offers credit related products, and retirement and savings solutions; and trust and investment management, asset management, and estate planning services to individuals, businesses, governmental institutions, and non-profit entities. It also provides investment and insurance products; low-income housing tax credit corporate fund syndication services; and other specialty financing services. The company was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

About Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of integrated financial services. It provides banking and investment services to businesses and consumers, including personal and business deposit products, Internet and mobile banking, personal, commercial and mortgage loans, wealth management services, and treasury management solutions. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Stuart, FL.