Comparing Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) and Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT)

Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) and Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

56.5% of Stock Yards Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.1% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of Stock Yards Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Stock Yards Bancorp and Lloyds Banking Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stock Yards Bancorp	0	6	1	0	2.14
Lloyds Banking Group	0	3	8	0	2.73

Stock Yards Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $88.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.90%. Given Stock Yards Bancorp’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Stock Yards Bancorp is more favorable than Lloyds Banking Group.

Volatility & Risk

Stock Yards Bancorp has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lloyds Banking Group has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Stock Yards Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Lloyds Banking Group pays an annual dividend of $0.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Stock Yards Bancorp pays out 26.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lloyds Banking Group pays out 39.5% 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. Stock Yards Bancorp has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Stock Yards Bancorp and Lloyds Banking Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stock Yards Bancorp	$564.54 million	4.33	$140.15 million	$5.02	15.67
Lloyds Banking Group	$25.61 billion	3.12	$6.14 billion	$0.43	12.80

Lloyds Banking Group has higher revenue and earnings than Stock Yards Bancorp. Lloyds Banking Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stock Yards Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Stock Yards Bancorp and Lloyds Banking Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stock Yards Bancorp	25.41%	13.39%	1.55%
Lloyds Banking Group	24.97%	10.94%	0.54%

Summary

Stock Yards Bancorp beats Lloyds Banking Group on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Stock Yards Bancorp

Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company that provides various financial services for individuals, corporations, and others in the United States. It operates in two segments, Commercial Banking, and WM&T. The Commercial Banking segment offers a range of loan and deposit products to individual consumers and businesses in all its markets through retail lending, mortgage banking, deposit services, online banking, mobile banking, private banking, commercial lending, commercial real estate lending, leasing, treasury management services, merchant services, international banking, correspondent banking, and other banking services. This segment also provides securities brokerage services through an arrangement with a third party broker-dealer. The WM&T segment provides investment management, financial and retirement planning, and trust and estate services, as well as retirement plan management for businesses and corporations. It provides services in Louisville, central, eastern, and northern Kentucky, as well as Indianapolis, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan markets. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

About Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates in three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, and credit cards to personal customers. The Commercial Banking segment provides lending, transactional banking, working capital management, risk management, and debt financing services to small and medium-sized entities, corporates, and institutions. The Insurance, Pensions, and Investments segment offers insurance, investment, and pension management products and services. It also provides digital banking services. The company offers its products and services under the Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, Schroders Personal Wealth, Black Horse, Lex Autolease, Birmingham Midshires, LDC, AMC, Embark Group, Citra, IWeb, Cavendish Online, and Tusker brand names. Lloyds Banking Group plc was founded in 1695 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.