Reviewing BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF) & S&T Bancorp (NASDAQ:STBA)

S&T Bancorp (NASDAQ:STBA) and BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Dividends

S&T Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. BOK Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. S&T Bancorp pays out 39.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. BOK Financial pays out 23.8% 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 and BOK Financial has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares S&T Bancorp and BOK Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
S&T Bancorp	24.51%	9.74%	1.42%
BOK Financial	18.97%	10.09%	1.16%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for S&T Bancorp and BOK Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
S&T Bancorp	0	6	2	0	2.25
BOK Financial	1	9	1	0	2.00

S&T Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $51.60, suggesting a potential upside of 5.87%. BOK Financial has a consensus price target of $141.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.53%. Given BOK Financial’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe BOK Financial is more favorable than S&T Bancorp.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

65.2% of S&T Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 34.4% of BOK Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of S&T Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 63.5% of BOK Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
S&T Bancorp	$568.51 million	3.02	$134.23 million	$3.76	12.96
BOK Financial	$3.38 billion	2.27	$577.99 million	$10.61	11.92

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

Risk & Volatility

S&T Bancorp has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BOK Financial has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

S&T Bancorp beats BOK Financial on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About BOK Financial

BOK Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for BOKF, NA that provides various financial products and services in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Northwest Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, and Kansas/Missouri. It operates through three segments: Commercial Banking, Consumer Banking, and Wealth Management. The Commercial Banking segment offers lending, treasury, cash management, and customer commodity risk management products for small businesses, middle market, and larger commercial customers, as well as operates TransFund electronic funds transfer network. The Consumer Banking segment engages in the provision of retail lending and deposit services to small business customers through retail branch network; and mortgage loan origination and servicing activities. The Wealth Management segment offers fiduciary, private bank, insurance, and investment advisory services; and brokerage and trading services primarily related to providing liquidity to the mortgage markets through trading of U.S. government agency mortgage-backed securities and related derivative contracts, as well as underwrites state and municipal securities. The company also provides commercial loans, such as loans for working capital, facilities acquisition or expansion, purchases of equipment, and other needs of commercial customers; and service, healthcare, manufacturing, wholesale/retail, energy, and other sector loans. In addition, it offers commercial real estate loans for the construction of buildings or other improvements to real estate and property held by borrowers for investment purposes; residential mortgage and personal loans; and automated teller machine, call center, and Internet and mobile banking services. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.