Financial Analysis: UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF) versus Colony Bankcorp (NYSE:CBAN)

Colony Bankcorp (NYSE:CBAN) and UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Colony Bankcorp and UMB Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Colony Bankcorp	0	1	3	0	2.75
UMB Financial	0	4	11	1	2.81

Colony Bankcorp presently has a consensus price target of $23.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.69%. UMB Financial has a consensus price target of $163.86, indicating a potential upside of 26.38%. Given UMB Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe UMB Financial is more favorable than Colony Bankcorp.

Dividends

Colony Bankcorp pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. UMB Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Colony Bankcorp pays out 29.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UMB Financial pays out 16.7% 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. Colony Bankcorp has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years and UMB Financial has raised its dividend for 32 consecutive years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

50.4% of Colony Bankcorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.8% of UMB Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of Colony Bankcorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of UMB Financial shares are held by company 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Colony Bankcorp and UMB Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Colony Bankcorp	$190.23 million	2.20	$28.25 million	$1.65	11.95
UMB Financial	$4.14 billion	2.38	$702.40 million	$12.01	10.80

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

Risk & Volatility

Colony Bankcorp has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UMB Financial has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Colony Bankcorp and UMB Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Colony Bankcorp	15.42%	10.40%	1.06%
UMB Financial	21.64%	13.41%	1.38%

Summary

UMB Financial beats Colony Bankcorp on 17 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Colony Bankcorp

Colony Bankcorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Colony Bank that provides various banking products and services to commercial and consumer customers. The company offers various deposit products, including demand, savings, and time deposits. It also provides loans to small and medium-sized businesses; residential and commercial construction, and land development loans; commercial real estate loans; commercial loans; agri-business and production loans; residential mortgage loans; home equity loans; and consumer loans. In addition, the company offers internet banking services, electronic bill payment services, safe deposit box rentals, telephone banking, credit and debit card services, and remote depository products, as well as access to a network of ATMs. As of January 20, 2022, it operated 39 locations throughout Georgia. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Fitzgerald, Georgia.

About UMB Financial

UMB Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company that provides banking services and asset servicing in the United States and internationally. The Commercial Banking segment provides commercial loans and credit card; commercial real estate financing; letters of credit; loan syndication, and consultative service; various business solutions including asset-based lending, mezzanine debt, and minority equity investment; and treasury management service, such as depository service, account reconciliation, cash management tool, accounts payable and receivable solution, electronic fund transfer and automated payment, controlled disbursement, lockbox service, and remote deposit capture service. The Institutional Banking segment offers fund, asset management, and healthcare service to institutional clients; and fund administration and accounting, investor service and transfer agency, mutual fund service, alternative investment service, fixed income sale, trading and underwriting, and corporate trust and escrow service, as well as institutional custody service. This segment also provides healthcare payment solution includes custodial service for health saving accounts and private label, multipurpose debit cards to insurance carriers, third-party administrator, software companies, employers, and financial institutions. The Personal Banking segment offers deposit account, retail credit card, private banking, installment loan, home equity line of credit, residential mortgage, as well as internet banking, ATM network, private banking, brokerage and insurance service, and investment advisory, custody, and trust services. It operates through a network of branches and offices. The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.