Comparing Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) and MainStreet Bank (NASDAQ:MNSB)

MainStreet Bank (NASDAQ:MNSB) and Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for MainStreet Bank and Huntington Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MainStreet Bank	0	1	1	0	2.50
Huntington Bancshares	2	7	13	1	2.57

Huntington Bancshares has a consensus target price of $18.89, indicating a potential upside of 19.23%. Given Huntington Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Huntington Bancshares is more favorable than MainStreet Bank.

Dividends

MainStreet Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Huntington Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. MainStreet Bank pays out 20.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Huntington Bancshares pays out 51.2% 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MainStreet Bank and Huntington Bancshares”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MainStreet Bank	$135.62 million	1.14	$15.61 million	$1.95	11.14
Huntington Bancshares	$12.48 billion	2.56	$2.21 billion	$1.21	13.09

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

Risk and Volatility

MainStreet Bank has a beta of 0.59, suggesting that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Huntington Bancshares has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.3% of MainStreet Bank shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.7% of Huntington Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 10.2% of MainStreet Bank shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Huntington Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares MainStreet Bank and Huntington Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MainStreet Bank	12.51%	8.70%	0.74%
Huntington Bancshares	16.28%	10.93%	1.12%

Summary

Huntington Bancshares beats MainStreet Bank on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MainStreet Bank

MainStreet Bank is a community bank headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, and the banking subsidiary of MainStreet Bancshares, Inc., which trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol MNSB. The bank serves businesses, professionals and individuals in Northern Virginia and the broader Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The bank provides commercial and consumer banking services, including business and personal checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, commercial real estate loans, business loans, residential lending and consumer credit.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is a regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Its principal subsidiary, The Huntington National Bank, provides consumer and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses, and institutions. The company traces its roots to 1866, when P.W. Huntington & Company opened in Columbus. Huntington’s offerings include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, business lending, treasury management, wealth management, and investment services.