Glacier Bancorp (NYSE:GBCI) versus Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) Head-To-Head Contrast

Glacier Bancorp (NYSE:GBCI) and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

80.2% of Glacier Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.8% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Glacier Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are owned 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Glacier Bancorp and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Glacier Bancorp	1	2	5	0	2.50
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	0	2	3	0	2.60

Glacier Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $55.17, suggesting a potential upside of 29.16%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a consensus price target of $36.50, suggesting a potential upside of 15.32%. Given Glacier Bancorp’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Glacier Bancorp is more favorable than Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida.

Dividends

Glacier Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Glacier Bancorp pays out 57.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays out 48.4% 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. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

Glacier Bancorp has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Glacier Bancorp and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Glacier Bancorp	$1.16 billion	4.78	$239.03 million	$2.44	17.50
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	$935.52 million	3.28	$144.88 million	$1.57	20.16

Glacier Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida. Glacier Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Glacier Bancorp and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Glacier Bancorp	19.72%	7.97%	1.05%
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	15.11%	8.68%	1.14%

Summary

Glacier Bancorp beats Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Glacier Bancorp

Glacier Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Glacier Bank that provides commercial banking services to individuals, small to medium-sized businesses, community organizations, and public entities in the United States. It offers non-interest bearing deposit and interest bearing deposit accounts, such as negotiable order of withdrawal and demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, fixed rate certificates of deposit, negotiated-rate jumbo certificates, and individual retirement accounts. The company also provides construction and permanent loans on residential real estate; consumer land or lot acquisition loans; unimproved land and land development loans; and residential builder guidance lines comprising pre-sold and spec-home construction, and lot acquisition loans. In addition, it offers commercial real estate loans to purchase, construct, and finance commercial real estate properties; consumer loans secured by real estate, automobiles, or other assets; paycheck protection program loans; home equity loans consisting of junior lien mortgages, and first and junior lien lines of credit secured by owner-occupied 1-4 family residences; and agriculture loans. Further, the company provides mortgage origination and loan servicing services. It has 224 locations, including 188 branches and 36 loan or administration offices in 75 counties within 8 states comprising Montana, Idaho, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. The company was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Kalispell, Montana.

About Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of integrated financial services. It provides banking and investment services to businesses and consumers, including personal and business deposit products, Internet and mobile banking, personal, commercial and mortgage loans, wealth management services, and treasury management solutions. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Stuart, FL.