Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH – Get Rating) and Santa Cruz County Bank (OTCMKTS:SCZC – Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Commerce Bancshares and Santa Cruz County Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.

Commerce Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $68.72, indicating a potential downside of 2.38%. Given Commerce Bancshares' higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Commerce Bancshares is more favorable than Santa Cruz County Bank.

Earnings and Valuation

Commerce Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than Santa Cruz County Bank. Santa Cruz County Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Commerce Bancshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Commerce Bancshares and Santa Cruz County Bank's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Risk and Volatility

Commerce Bancshares has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Santa Cruz County Bank has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Commerce Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Santa Cruz County Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Commerce Bancshares pays out 27.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Santa Cruz County Bank pays out 17.2% 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. Commerce Bancshares has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Santa Cruz County Bank is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

68.8% of Commerce Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.6% of Santa Cruz County Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.2% of Commerce Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Commerce Bancshares beats Santa Cruz County Bank on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commerce Bancshares

(Get Rating)

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Commerce Bank that provides retail, mortgage banking, corporate, investment, trust, and asset management products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer, Commercial, and Wealth. The Consumer segment offers various banking products and services, including consumer deposits; consumer loans, such as automobile, motorcycle, marine, tractor/trailer, recreational vehicle, fixed rate and revolving home equity, and other consumer loans; patient health care financing; real estate loans; indirect and other consumer financing; personal mortgage banking; consumer installment lending; and consumer debit and credit bank cards. The Commercial segment provides corporate lending, leasing, international, merchant and commercial bank card, and securities safekeeping and bond accounting services; and business products, government deposits, and related commercial cash management services, as well as sells fixed income securities to correspondent banks, corporations, public institutions, municipalities, and individuals. The Wealth segment provides traditional trust and estate planning, advisory and discretionary investment portfolio management, and brokerage services, as well as private banking accounts. The company also offers private equity investment, securities brokerage, insurance agency, specialty lending, and leasing services, as well as online and mobile banking services. It operates through a network of 287 locations in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Colorado, as well as commercial offices. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.

About Santa Cruz County Bank

(Get Rating)

Santa Cruz County Bank provides a range of commercial and personal banking services to residents and businesses. The company's deposit products include checking, savings, term certificate, money market, and health savings accounts; and IRAs and certificate of deposits. It also offers lending products comprising commercial, multi-family, agricultural, construction, wine industry, venture banking, small business administration, business and industry, farm services agency, municipal, government guarantee, and installment loans, as well as loans supported by single-family residential real estate, commercial real estate financing, and lines of credit. In addition, the company provides debit and credit cards, merchant, online and mobile banking, remote electronic deposit, bill payment, treasury management, and cash management services. It operates through seven full-service offices located in Aptos, Capitola, Cupertino, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and Watsonville; and two ATMs and night depository kiosks. Santa Cruz County Bank was incorporated in 2003 and is based in Santa Cruz, California.

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