Analyzing Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) and Solera National Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SLRK)

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) and Solera National Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SLRK) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Wintrust Financial and Solera National Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wintrust Financial	0	3	10	1	2.86
Solera National Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

Wintrust Financial presently has a consensus price target of $163.62, indicating a potential upside of 17.20%. Given Wintrust Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Wintrust Financial is more favorable than Solera National Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Wintrust Financial and Solera National Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wintrust Financial	19.48%	12.95%	1.22%
Solera National Bancorp	27.46%	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Wintrust Financial has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Solera National Bancorp has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.4% of Solera National Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Wintrust Financial and Solera National Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wintrust Financial	$4.23 billion	2.22	$823.84 million	$11.40	12.25
Solera National Bancorp	$83.83 million	0.93	$23.02 million	$5.35	3.38

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

Summary

Wintrust Financial beats Solera National Bancorp on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services. It also engages in the retail origination and purchase of residential mortgages; and provision of lending, deposits, and treasury management services to condominium, homeowner, and community associations, as well as asset-based lending for middle-market companies. In addition, this segment offers loan and deposit services to mortgage brokerage companies; lending to restaurant franchisees; direct leasing; small business administration loans; commercial mortgages and construction loans; and financial solutions. It provides personal and commercial banking services primarily to individuals, small to mid-sized businesses, local governmental units, and institutional clients. The Specialty Finance segment offers commercial and life insurance premiums financing for businesses and individuals; accounts receivable financing, value-added, and out-sourced administrative services; other specialty finance services; equipment financing through structured loan and lease products; and property and casualty premium financing; as well as data processing of payrolls, billing, and cash management services to temporary staffing industry. The Wealth Management segment provides wealth management services, such as trust and investment, asset management, tax-deferred exchange, securities brokerage, and retirement plan services. Wintrust Financial Corporation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.

About Solera National Bancorp

Solera National Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Solera National Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services in the United States. The company offers checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, time and demand deposits, and individual retirement accounts (IRA), as well as certificates of deposit; and real estate secured loans, construction loans, small business administration loans, business lines of credit, and equipment financing. It also provides online banking, account analysis, combined account analysis, commercial sweep, remote deposit, ACH origination, payroll direct deposit, merchant, business debit card, and cash management services. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Lakewood, Colorado.