Head to Head Analysis: Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) and Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI)

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) and Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Popular and Customers Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Popular	0	1	11	0	2.92
Customers Bancorp	0	5	6	1	2.67

Popular presently has a consensus price target of $168.73, suggesting a potential upside of 12.97%. Customers Bancorp has a consensus price target of $87.50, suggesting a potential upside of 13.39%. Given Customers Bancorp’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Customers Bancorp is more favorable than Popular.

Volatility and Risk

Popular has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Customers Bancorp has a beta of 1.52, meaning that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.3% of Popular shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.3% of Customers Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Popular shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.5% of Customers Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Popular and Customers Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Popular	20.10%	14.65%	1.18%
Customers Bancorp	18.63%	14.12%	1.17%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Popular and Customers Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Popular	$4.44 billion	2.19	$833.16 million	$13.54	11.03
Customers Bancorp	$1.48 billion	1.76	$224.09 million	$7.88	9.79

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

Summary

Popular beats Customers Bancorp on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Popular

Popular, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various retail, mortgage, and commercial banking products and services in Puerto Rico, the United States, and the British Virgin Islands. The company provides savings, NOW, money market, and other interest-bearing demand accounts; non-interest bearing demand deposits; and certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial and industrial, commercial multi-family, commercial real estate, and residential mortgage loans; consumer loans, including personal loans, credit cards, automobile loans, home equity lines of credit, and other loans to individual borrowers; construction loans; and lease financing comprising automobile loans/leases. In addition, the company provides investment banking, auto and equipment leasing and financing, broker-dealer, and insurance services; debit cards; and online banking services. Popular, Inc. was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

About Customers Bancorp

Customers Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Customers Bank that provides financial products and services to individual consumers, and small and middle market businesses. The company provides deposit banking products, which includes commercial and consumer checking, non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing demand, MMDA, savings, and time deposit accounts. Its lending business offers commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and multifamily and residential mortgage loans; SBA lending and financing; specialty lending includes fund finance, real estate specialty finance, technology and venture, and healthcare and financial institutions group; commercial loans to mortgage companies, and commercial equipment financing; and fund finance, such as variable rate loans secured by collateral pools to private debt funds; and cash management services. In addition, the company provides digital banking including Banking-as-a-Service to fintech companies, payments and treasury services to businesses, and consumer loans through fintech companies and the TassatPay, a blockchain-based instant B2B payments platform which offers instant payments including over-the-counter desks, exchanges, liquidity providers, market makers, funds, and other B2B verticals. Further, it offers mobile phone and internet banking, wire transfers, electronic bill payment, lock box, remote deposit capture, courier, merchant processing, cash vault, controlled disbursements, positive pay, and cash management services, such as account reconciliation, collections, and sweep accounts. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in West Reading, Pennsylvania.