Comparing Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ (OTCMKTS:SVNLY) & Erste Group Bank (OTCMKTS:EBKDY)

Erste Group Bank (OTCMKTS:EBKDY) and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ (OTCMKTS:SVNLY) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

Erste Group Bank has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Erste Group Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.5%. Erste Group Bank pays out 28.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ pays out 88.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Erste Group Bank and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Erste Group Bank	$20.43 billion	2.44	$3.38 billion	$4.16	15.40
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	$21.75 billion	N/A	$3.59 billion	$0.68	11.79

Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ has higher revenue and earnings than Erste Group Bank. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Erste Group Bank, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Erste Group Bank and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Erste Group Bank	0	3	3	2	2.88
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	2	4	0	0	1.67

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.4% of Erste Group Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Erste Group Bank and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Erste Group Bank	17.36%	9.85%	0.89%
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	16.69%	14.42%	0.73%

Summary

Erste Group Bank beats Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Erste Group Bank

Erste Group Bank AG provides a range of banking and other financial services to retail, corporate, and public sector customers. The company operates through Retail, Corporates, Group Markets, Asset/Liability Management & Local Corporate Center, Savings Banks, and Group Corporate Center segments. It provides mortgage and consumer loans, investment products, current accounts, savings products, and credit cards, as well as cross selling products, such as leasing, insurance, and building society products. The company also offers factoring and accounts receivable purchasing; investment, acquisition and leveraged, project, and commercial real estate finance; interest rate and currency hedging, letters of credit, documentary collections, and guarantees; account management, payments, digital-banking, cash logistics, and payment factory and cash pooling services; documentary collection, equity interests and investments, revolving export credits lines, letters of credit, customer financing, and export guarantee; and loan syndication, and debt and equity capital market services. In addition, it provides cash management, trade finance, customer referral, markets execution, debt capital markets, and custody and brokerage services. Further, the company offers corporate finance; portfolio management; trading and market; trade execution, market making, and short-term liquidity management; and asset/liability management services, as well as working capital and bridge loans. It operates in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, and internationally. The company was founded in 1819 and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

About Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ

Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) provides various banking products and services for private and corporate customers primarily in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, the United States, Luxembourg, Finland, and Poland. The company offers savings, transactions, business, currency, and investment accounts, as well as accounts for cash pool, and forestry and agriculture; mortgage and committed loans, and private loans; mutual funds; pension products; credit and debit cards; and payment and reconciliation services, as well as foreign exchange rate services. It also provides financing for investments, such as equipment, cars, computers, and other inventories, as well as vehicle and real estate financing services; green loans and advisor services; investment and other financing services; medical care, and group and health insurance products; forestry and farming banking products; and online and mobile banking services, as well as various banking services for children and young people. In addition, the company offers financial services, that includes asset management, transactional banking, corporate finance, financing, markets, trade finance, market information and research services to large corporations; cash management solutions; and various corporate banking services to small and medium-sized companies and large corporates, as well as private banking services. Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) was incorporated in 1871 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.