Reviewing S&T Bancorp (NASDAQ:STBA) & Erste Group Bank (OTCMKTS:EBKDY)

Erste Group Bank (OTCMKTS:EBKDY) and S&T Bancorp (NASDAQ:STBA) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

Erste Group Bank has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, S&T Bancorp has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Erste Group Bank and S&T Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Erste Group Bank	0	1	5	1	3.00
S&T Bancorp	0	4	2	1	2.57

S&T Bancorp has a consensus price target of $51.60, suggesting a potential upside of 3.85%. Given S&T Bancorp’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe S&T Bancorp is more favorable than Erste Group Bank.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Erste Group Bank and S&T Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Erste Group Bank	$23.77 billion	2.27	$3.97 billion	$5.22	13.34
S&T Bancorp	$568.51 million	3.08	$134.23 million	$3.76	13.21

Erste Group Bank has higher revenue and earnings than S&T Bancorp. S&T Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Erste Group Bank, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Erste Group Bank and S&T Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Erste Group Bank	18.39%	10.22%	0.94%
S&T Bancorp	24.51%	9.74%	1.42%

Dividends

Erste Group Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. S&T Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Erste Group Bank pays out 5.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. S&T Bancorp pays out 39.4% 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. S&T Bancorp has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. S&T Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.4% of Erste Group Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.2% of S&T Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of S&T Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Erste Group Bank beats S&T Bancorp on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Erste Group Bank

Erste Group Bank AG provides a range of banking and other financial services to retail, corporate, and public sector customers. The company operates through Retail, Corporates, Group Markets, Asset/Liability Management & Local Corporate Center, Savings Banks, and Group Corporate Center segments. It provides mortgage and consumer loans, investment products, current accounts, savings products, and credit cards, as well as cross selling products, such as leasing, insurance, and building society products. The company also offers factoring and accounts receivable purchasing; investment, acquisition and leveraged, project, and commercial real estate finance; interest rate and currency hedging, letters of credit, documentary collections, and guarantees; account management, payments, digital-banking, cash logistics, and payment factory and cash pooling services; documentary collection, equity interests and investments, revolving export credits lines, letters of credit, customer financing, and export guarantee; and loan syndication, and debt and equity capital market services. In addition, it provides cash management, trade finance, customer referral, markets execution, debt capital markets, and custody and brokerage services. Further, the company offers corporate finance; portfolio management; trading and market; trade execution, market making, and short-term liquidity management; and asset/liability management services, as well as working capital and bridge loans. It operates in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, and internationally. The company was founded in 1819 and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

About S&T Bancorp

S&T Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of consumer, commercial, and small business banking services. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Real Estate, Commercial and Industrial, Commercial Construction, Business Banking, Consumer Real Estate, and Other Consumer. The Commercial Real Estate segment includes both owner-occupied properties and investment properties for various purposes such as hotels, retail, multifamily and health care. The Commercial and Industrial segment focuses on the companies or manufacturers for the purpose of production, operating capacity, accounts receivable, inventory or equipment financing. The Commercial Construction segment refers to the finance construction of buildings or other structures, as well as to finance the acquisition and development of raw land for various purposes. The Business Banking segment is made to small businesses that are standard, non-complex products evaluated through a streamlined credit approval process that has been designed to maximize efficiency while maintaining high credit quality standards. The Consumer Real Estate segment offers first and second liens such as 1-4 family residential mortgages, home equity loans and home equity lines of credit. The Other Consumer segment consists of individuals that may be secured by assets other than 1-4 family residences, as well as unsecured loans. The company was founded on March 17, 1983 and is headquartered in Indiana, PA.