Reviewing Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) & Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG)

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) and Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Lloyds Banking Group pays an annual dividend of $0.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Stock Yards Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Lloyds Banking Group pays out 39.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Stock Yards Bancorp pays out 26.3% 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. Stock Yards Bancorp has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Volatility and Risk

Lloyds Banking Group has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stock Yards Bancorp has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Lloyds Banking Group and Stock Yards Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lloyds Banking Group	0	3	8	0	2.73
Stock Yards Bancorp	0	6	1	0	2.14

Stock Yards Bancorp has a consensus target price of $88.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.00%. Given Stock Yards Bancorp’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Stock Yards Bancorp is more favorable than Lloyds Banking Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.1% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of Stock Yards Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Stock Yards Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Lloyds Banking Group and Stock Yards Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lloyds Banking Group	24.97%	10.94%	0.54%
Stock Yards Bancorp	25.41%	13.39%	1.55%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Lloyds Banking Group and Stock Yards Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lloyds Banking Group	$25.61 billion	3.27	$6.14 billion	$0.43	13.43
Stock Yards Bancorp	$564.54 million	4.32	$140.15 million	$5.02	15.65

Lloyds Banking Group has higher revenue and earnings than Stock Yards Bancorp. Lloyds Banking Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stock Yards Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Stock Yards Bancorp beats Lloyds Banking Group on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates in three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, and credit cards to personal customers. The Commercial Banking segment provides lending, transactional banking, working capital management, risk management, and debt financing services to small and medium-sized entities, corporates, and institutions. The Insurance, Pensions, and Investments segment offers insurance, investment, and pension management products and services. It also provides digital banking services. The company offers its products and services under the Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, Schroders Personal Wealth, Black Horse, Lex Autolease, Birmingham Midshires, LDC, AMC, Embark Group, Citra, IWeb, Cavendish Online, and Tusker brand names. Lloyds Banking Group plc was founded in 1695 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Stock Yards Bancorp

Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company that provides various financial services for individuals, corporations, and others in the United States. It operates in two segments, Commercial Banking, and WM&T. The Commercial Banking segment offers a range of loan and deposit products to individual consumers and businesses in all its markets through retail lending, mortgage banking, deposit services, online banking, mobile banking, private banking, commercial lending, commercial real estate lending, leasing, treasury management services, merchant services, international banking, correspondent banking, and other banking services. This segment also provides securities brokerage services through an arrangement with a third party broker-dealer. The WM&T segment provides investment management, financial and retirement planning, and trust and estate services, as well as retirement plan management for businesses and corporations. It provides services in Louisville, central, eastern, and northern Kentucky, as well as Indianapolis, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan markets. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.