Contrasting ACNB (NASDAQ:ACNB) and BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF)

ACNB (NASDAQ:ACNB) and BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

32.3% of ACNB shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 34.4% of BOK Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of ACNB shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 60.1% of BOK Financial shares are held by 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for ACNB and BOK Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ACNB	0	1	2	1	3.00
BOK Financial	0	6	4	0	2.40

ACNB currently has a consensus price target of $48.67, suggesting a potential downside of 1.58%. BOK Financial has a consensus price target of $115.55, suggesting a potential downside of 0.85%. Given BOK Financial’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe BOK Financial is more favorable than ACNB.

Profitability

This table compares ACNB and BOK Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ACNB	18.47%	11.58%	1.42%
BOK Financial	15.98%	9.24%	1.07%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ACNB and BOK Financial”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ACNB	$141.43 million	3.63	$31.85 million	$3.27	15.12
BOK Financial	$3.48 billion	2.12	$523.57 million	$8.39	13.89

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

Dividends

ACNB pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. BOK Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. ACNB pays out 46.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. BOK Financial pays out 30.0% 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. ACNB has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years and BOK Financial has increased its dividend for 20 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

ACNB has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BOK Financial has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BOK Financial beats ACNB on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ACNB

ACNB Corporation, a financial holding company, offers banking, insurance, and financial services to individual, business, and government customers in the United States. The company provides checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits and debit cards. It also offers commercial lending products, such as commercial mortgages, real estate development and construction loans, accounts receivable and inventory financing, and agricultural and governmental loans; consumer lending products, including home equity loans and lines of credit, automobile and recreational vehicle loans, manufactured housing loans, and personal lines of credit; and mortgage lending programs include personal residential mortgages, and residential construction and investment mortgage loans. In addition, the company provides other services that are related to testamentary trusts, life insurance trusts, charitable remainder trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney, custodial accounts, and investment management and advisory accounts; and retail brokerage services. Further, it acts as a trustee to invest in, protect, manage, and distribute financial assets. Additionally, the company offers property and casualty, health, life, and disability insurance products to commercial and personal clients; and online, telephone, and mobile banking, as well as automated teller machine services. ACNB Corporation was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

About BOK Financial

BOK Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for BOKF, NA that provides various financial products and services in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Northwest Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, and Kansas/Missouri. It operates through three segments: Commercial Banking, Consumer Banking, and Wealth Management. The Commercial Banking segment offers lending, treasury, cash management, and customer commodity risk management products for small businesses, middle market, and larger commercial customers, as well as operates TransFund electronic funds transfer network. The Consumer Banking segment engages in the provision of retail lending and deposit services to small business customers through retail branch network; and mortgage loan origination and servicing activities. The Wealth Management segment offers fiduciary, private bank, insurance, and investment advisory services; and brokerage and trading services primarily related to providing liquidity to the mortgage markets through trading of U.S. government agency mortgage-backed securities and related derivative contracts, as well as underwrites state and municipal securities. The company also provides commercial loans, such as loans for working capital, facilities acquisition or expansion, purchases of equipment, and other needs of commercial customers; and service, healthcare, manufacturing, wholesale/retail, energy, and other sector loans. In addition, it offers commercial real estate loans for the construction of buildings or other improvements to real estate and property held by borrowers for investment purposes; residential mortgage and personal loans; and automated teller machine, call center, and Internet and mobile banking services. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.