Financial Review: Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) versus Heartland BancCorp. (OTCMKTS:HLAN)

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) and Heartland BancCorp. (OTCMKTS:HLAN) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Commerce Bancshares and Heartland BancCorp.’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Commerce Bancshares	26.07%	14.31%	1.71%
Heartland BancCorp.	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Commerce Bancshares and Heartland BancCorp., as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Commerce Bancshares	0	6	3	0	2.33
Heartland BancCorp.	0	0	0	0	0.00

Commerce Bancshares presently has a consensus target price of $62.43, indicating a potential upside of 4.17%. Given Commerce Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Commerce Bancshares is more favorable than Heartland BancCorp..

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.3% of Commerce Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 7.5% of Heartland BancCorp. shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Commerce Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.7% of Heartland BancCorp. shares are held by company insiders. 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Commerce Bancshares and Heartland BancCorp.”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Commerce Bancshares	$2.14 billion	4.09	$566.25 million	$4.13	14.51
Heartland BancCorp.	$119.21 million	2.74	$20.26 million	$9.74	16.43

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

Summary

Commerce Bancshares beats Heartland BancCorp. on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commerce Bancshares

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Commerce Bank that provides retail, mortgage banking, corporate, investment, trust, and asset management products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer, Commercial, and Wealth. The Consumer segment offers various banking products and services, including consumer deposits; consumer loans, such as automobile, motorcycle, marine, tractor/trailer, recreational vehicle, fixed rate and revolving home equity, and other consumer loans; patient health care financing; real estate loans; indirect and other consumer financing; retail branch network; personal mortgage banking; consumer installment lending; and consumer debit and credit bank cards. The Commercial segment provides corporate lending, leasing, international, merchant and commercial bank card, and securities safekeeping and bond accounting services; and business products, government deposits, and related commercial cash management services, as well as sells fixed income securities to correspondent banks, corporations, public institutions, municipalities, and individuals. The Wealth segment provides traditional trust and estate planning, advisory and discretionary investment portfolio management, and brokerage services, as well as private banking accounts. The company also offers private equity investment, securities brokerage, insurance agency, specialty lending, and leasing services, as well as online and mobile banking services. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.

About Heartland BancCorp.

Heartland BancCorp operates as the bank holding company for Heartland Bank that provides various banking and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company offers personal and business checking and savings accounts. It also provides various lending solutions comprising agricultural loans, commercial and business lending, home and personal loans, and title services. In addition, the company offers online banking, treasury management, credit and debit card, and mobile wallet services. Further, it provides education planning, insurance, wealth management, and retirement planning services. Heartland BancCorp was founded in 1911 and is based in Whitehall, Ohio.