Head-To-Head Review: Nordea Bank (OTCMKTS:NRDBY) versus Nicolet Bankshares (NYSE:NIC)

Nicolet Bankshares (NYSE:NIC) and Nordea Bank (OTCMKTS:NRDBY) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Nicolet Bankshares and Nordea Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nicolet Bankshares	0	3	4	1	2.75
Nordea Bank	1	3	3	0	2.29

Nicolet Bankshares currently has a consensus price target of $184.80, indicating a potential upside of 5.37%. Given Nicolet Bankshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Nicolet Bankshares is more favorable than Nordea Bank.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Nicolet Bankshares and Nordea Bank”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nicolet Bankshares	$590.98 million	6.17	$150.69 million	$9.04	19.40
Nordea Bank	$23.46 billion	2.72	$5.48 billion	$1.59	11.79

Nordea Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Nicolet Bankshares. Nordea Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nicolet Bankshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Nicolet Bankshares and Nordea Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nicolet Bankshares	22.11%	11.27%	1.64%
Nordea Bank	22.74%	15.06%	0.68%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

43.1% of Nicolet Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Nordea Bank shares are held by institutional investors. 7.2% of Nicolet Bankshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Nicolet Bankshares has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nordea Bank has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Nicolet Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Nordea Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Nicolet Bankshares pays out 15.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nordea Bank pays out 22.0% 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. Nicolet Bankshares has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Summary

Nicolet Bankshares beats Nordea Bank on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nicolet Bankshares

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the parent of Nicolet National Bank. The bank was founded in 2000 and has expanded through acquisitions and organic growth. Nicolet National Bank provides commercial and consumer banking services, including business lending, deposit accounts, mortgages and other personal banking products. It also offers trust, wealth management and investment services. The company serves customers across Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and parts of Minnesota through its branch network and digital banking services.

About Nordea Bank

Nordea Bank Abp is a financial services group headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. It provides banking and related services to individuals, businesses and institutions, with a focus on the Nordic region. Its offerings include everyday and savings accounts, mortgages, consumer loans, payment services, and investment and wealth-management services for personal customers. For businesses and institutions, Nordea provides lending, cash management, trade finance, capital-markets services and other corporate banking solutions.