Critical Contrast: KBC Group (KBCSY) and Its Rivals

KBC Group (OTCMKTS:KBCSY) is one of 919 public companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare KBC Group to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

KBC Group has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, KBC Group’s competitors have a beta of 0.61, suggesting that their average share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

KBC Group pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. KBC Group pays out 12.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 8.9% and pay out 28.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for KBC Group and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KBC Group	1	3	3	0	2.29
KBC Group Competitors	7492	30250	27848	1488	2.35

As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 14.08%. Given KBC Group’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe KBC Group has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares KBC Group and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
KBC Group	$26.56 billion	$4.04 billion	12.71
KBC Group Competitors	$39.04 billion	$2.42 billion	21.36

KBC Group’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than KBC Group. KBC Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares KBC Group and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KBC Group	15.58%	13.42%	0.94%
KBC Group Competitors	15.63%	9.41%	0.93%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

48.0% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by institutional investors. 9.7% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

KBC Group competitors beat KBC Group on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About KBC Group

KBC Group is a Belgium-based financial services group that combines banking and insurance. It serves individuals, businesses and institutional clients through retail and commercial banking, private banking, insurance, and related financial services. The group’s core markets include Belgium and several Central and Eastern European countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. Its offerings include deposit and lending products, payment services, investment and wealth-management services, and life and non-life insurance, delivered through branches and digital channels.