Head to Head Contrast: First Citizens BancShares (NASDAQ:FCNCA) and Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF)

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) and First Citizens BancShares (NASDAQ:FCNCA) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Heartland Financial USA and First Citizens BancShares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Heartland Financial USA	0	1	3	1	3.00
First Citizens BancShares	0	4	6	0	2.60

Heartland Financial USA currently has a consensus target price of $45.60, indicating a potential upside of 3.90%. First Citizens BancShares has a consensus target price of $1,842.40, indicating a potential upside of 7.36%. Given First Citizens BancShares’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe First Citizens BancShares is more favorable than Heartland Financial USA.

Dividends

Heartland Financial USA pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. First Citizens BancShares pays an annual dividend of $6.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Heartland Financial USA pays out 72.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Citizens BancShares pays out 3.6% 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.

Profitability

This table compares Heartland Financial USA and First Citizens BancShares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heartland Financial USA	8.17%	11.33%	1.03%
First Citizens BancShares	18.22%	15.48%	1.44%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Heartland Financial USA and First Citizens BancShares’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Heartland Financial USA	$932.87 million	2.01	$79.92 million	$1.66	26.44
First Citizens BancShares	$9.88 billion	2.52	$11.47 billion	$180.13	9.53

First Citizens BancShares has higher revenue and earnings than Heartland Financial USA. First Citizens BancShares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heartland Financial USA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.6% of Heartland Financial USA shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.2% of First Citizens BancShares shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Heartland Financial USA shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of First Citizens BancShares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Heartland Financial USA has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Citizens BancShares has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

First Citizens BancShares beats Heartland Financial USA on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Heartland Financial USA

Heartland Financial USA, Inc., a bank holding company, provides commercial, small business, and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, demand deposit accounts, NOW accounts, savings, money market, and individual retirement; certificates of deposit; and other time deposits. It offers loans, including commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, agricultural, small business, and real estate mortgage loans; consumer loans comprising motor vehicle, home improvement, home equity line of credit, and fixed rate home equity and personal lines of credit; and credit cards for commercial, business, and personal use. In addition, the company provides business and personal online banking, and mobile banking; bill payment, remote deposit capture, and treasury management services; debit cards; automated teller machines; and automated clearing house services, wire transfers, insured cash sweeps, zero balance accounts, lockbox, image cash letter, remote deposit capture, commercial cards for travel and entertainment purchasing, merchant services to receive credit card payments, investment sweep accounts, reconciliation services, online invoice processing, foreign exchange and positive pay fraud prevention services for checks and automated clearing house services payments. Further, it offers wealth management, trust services, brokerage services, and fixed rate annuity products; and investment services, including mutual funds, individual retirement products, and education savings products. Heartland Financial USA, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

About First Citizens BancShares

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. operates as the holding company for First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses, and professionals. The company's deposit products include checking, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts. Its loan product portfolio comprises commercial construction and mortgage; and commercial and industrial leases, as well as small business administration loans. In addition, the company offers consumer loans, such as residential and revolving mortgage, consumer auto, and other consumer loans. Further, it provides wealth management services, including annuities, brokerage services, and third-party mutual funds, as well as investment management and advisory services. The company provides its products and services through its branch network. First Citizens BancShares, Inc. was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.