MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG) versus Standard Chartered (OTCMKTS:SCBFF) Financial Survey

MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG) and Standard Chartered (OTCMKTS:SCBFF) 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 MidWestOne Financial Group and Standard Chartered, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MidWestOne Financial Group	0	1	0	0	2.00
Standard Chartered	0	4	5	0	2.56

Volatility & Risk

MidWestOne Financial Group has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Standard Chartered has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares MidWestOne Financial Group and Standard Chartered”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MidWestOne Financial Group	$238.84 million	4.26	-$60.29 million	$2.81	17.55
Standard Chartered	$39.53 billion	1.71	$5.08 billion	$2.34	12.68

Standard Chartered has higher revenue and earnings than MidWestOne Financial Group. Standard Chartered is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MidWestOne Financial Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares MidWestOne Financial Group and Standard Chartered’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MidWestOne Financial Group	16.66%	10.22%	0.96%
Standard Chartered	14.76%	11.35%	0.66%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

65.4% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of MidWestOne Financial Group 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.

Dividends

MidWestOne Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.97 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Standard Chartered pays an annual dividend of $0.41 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. MidWestOne Financial Group pays out 34.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Standard Chartered pays out 17.5% 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.

Summary

MidWestOne Financial Group beats Standard Chartered on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MidWestOne Financial Group

MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa. Through its subsidiary, MidWestOne Bank, the company provides community banking services to individuals, businesses and organizations. Its offerings include deposit accounts, consumer and commercial loans, mortgage lending, cash management, and wealth management and trust services. The bank serves customers through offices in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Colorado.

About Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered PLC is an international banking group headquartered in London. It provides services to individuals, businesses, corporations and financial institutions, including personal and business banking, wealth management, corporate and investment banking, trade finance, lending, deposits and transaction services. The group has a particular focus on markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, with operations and clients in other regions as well. Its history dates to 1969, when the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China and the Standard Bank of British South Africa—both founded in the 19th century—merged to form Standard Chartered.