Financial Survey: MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG) versus Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN)

MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG) and Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for MidWestOne Financial Group and Merchants Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MidWestOne Financial Group	0	1	0	0	2.00
Merchants Bancorp	0	3	2	0	2.40

Merchants Bancorp has a consensus target price of $55.25, indicating a potential upside of 11.12%. Given Merchants Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Merchants Bancorp is more favorable than MidWestOne Financial Group.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MidWestOne Financial Group and Merchants Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MidWestOne Financial Group	$238.84 million	4.26	-$60.29 million	$2.81	17.55
Merchants Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A	$4.98	9.98

Merchants Bancorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MidWestOne Financial Group. Merchants Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MidWestOne Financial Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares MidWestOne Financial Group and Merchants Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MidWestOne Financial Group	16.66%	10.22%	0.96%
Merchants Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

65.4% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.6% of Merchants Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 44.9% of Merchants Bancorp shares are held 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.

About MidWestOne Financial Group

MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for MidWestOne Bank that provides commercial and retail banking products and services to individuals, businesses, governmental units, and institutional customers. It offers range of deposit products, including noninterest bearing and interest bearing demand deposits, savings, money market, and time deposits accounts. The company also provides commercial, real estate, agricultural, credit card, and consumer loans; and financing arrangements, such as brokered deposits, term debt, subordinated debt, and equity. In addition, it offers trust and investment services comprising administering estates, trusts, and conservatorships; property and farm management, investment advisory, retail securities brokerage, financial planning, and custodial services; and licensed brokers services. Further, the company provides online and mobile banking, debit cards, automated teller machines, and safe deposit boxes. MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa.

About Merchants Bancorp

Merchants Bancorp operates as the diversified bank holding company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Multi-family Mortgage Banking, Mortgage Warehousing, and Banking. The Multi-family Mortgage Banking segment engages in the mortgage banking, which originates and services government sponsored mortgages, including bridge financing products to refinance, acquire, or reposition multi-family housing projects, and construction lending for multi-family and healthcare facilities. This segment also offers customized loan products for need-based skilled nursing facilities, such as independent living, assisted living, and memory care; and tax credit equity syndicator service. The Mortgage Warehousing segment funds agency eligible residential loans, as well as commercial loans to non-depository financial institutions. The Banking segment offers a range of financial products and services to consumers and businesses, which includes retail banking, commercial lending, agricultural lending, retail and correspondent residential mortgage banking, and small business administration lending. Merchants Bancorp was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.