Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP – Get Free Report) and Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.
Profitability
This table compares Popular and Veritex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Popular | 14.15% | 11.89% | 0.90% |
| Veritex | 13.44% | 7.59% | 0.93% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Popular and Veritex”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Popular | $2.84 billion | 2.54 | $612.80 million | $9.69 | 10.85 |
| Veritex | $435.91 million | 3.12 | $107.24 million | $2.04 | 12.28 |
Popular has higher revenue and earnings than Veritex. Popular is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Veritex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
87.3% of Popular shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.3% of Veritex shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Popular shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of Veritex shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Dividends
Popular pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Veritex pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Popular pays out 28.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Veritex pays out 43.1% 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. Popular has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years and Veritex has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Popular and Veritex, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Popular | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2.86 |
| Veritex | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2.67 |
Popular currently has a consensus price target of $114.43, suggesting a potential upside of 8.82%. Veritex has a consensus price target of $30.25, suggesting a potential upside of 20.71%. Given Veritex’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Veritex is more favorable than Popular.
Risk & Volatility
Popular has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veritex has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Popular beats Veritex on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Popular
Popular, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various retail, mortgage, and commercial banking products and services in Puerto Rico, the United States, and the British Virgin Islands. The company provides savings, NOW, money market, and other interest-bearing demand accounts; non-interest bearing demand deposits; and certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial and industrial, commercial multi-family, commercial real estate, and residential mortgage loans; consumer loans, including personal loans, credit cards, automobile loans, home equity lines of credit, and other loans to individual borrowers; construction loans; and lease financing comprising automobile loans/leases. In addition, the company provides investment banking, auto and equipment leasing and financing, broker-dealer, and insurance services; debit cards; and online banking services. Popular, Inc. was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
About Veritex
Veritex Holdings, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Veritex Community Bank that provides various commercial banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, and professionals. The company accepts deposit products include demand, savings, money market, and time accounts. Its loan products include commercial real estate and general commercial, mortgage warehouse loans, residential real estate, construction and land, farmland, paycheck protection program, 1-4 family residential, agricultural, multi-family residential, and consumer loans, as well as purchased receivables financing. The company also provides interest rate swap services; and a range of online banking solutions, such as access to account balances, online transfers, online bill payment and electronic delivery of customer statements, and ATMs, as well as mobile banking, mail, and personal appointment. In addition, it offers debit cards, night depository services, direct deposits, cashier’s checks, and letters of credit; treasury management services, including balance reporting, transfers between accounts, wire transfer initiation, automated clearinghouse origination, and stop payments; and cash management deposit products and services consisting of lockbox, remote deposit capture, positive pay, reverse positive pay, account reconciliation services, zero balance accounts, and sweep accounts. The company operates full-service branches located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and the Houston metropolitan area. Veritex Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Receive News & Ratings for Popular Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Popular and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
