KBC Group (OTCMKTS:KBCSY) & Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ (OTCMKTS:SVNLY) Head-To-Head Survey

KBC Group (OTCMKTS:KBCSY) and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ (OTCMKTS:SVNLY) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for KBC Group and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KBC Group	1	4	1	0	2.00
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	2	2	0	0	1.50

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KBC Group	14.98%	13.15%	0.92%
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	17.61%	14.41%	0.74%

Dividends

KBC Group pays an annual dividend of $3.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ pays an annual dividend of $0.58 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.9%. KBC Group pays out 63.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ pays out 81.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KBC Group	$26.56 billion	2.16	$4.04 billion	$5.04	13.64
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	$21.75 billion	1.34	$2.42 billion	$0.71	10.39

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

Volatility & Risk

KBC Group has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

KBC Group beats Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KBC Group

KBC Group NV, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated bank-insurance services primarily for retail, private banking, small and medium sized enterprises, and mid-cap clients. The company offers demand deposits and savings accounts; home and mortgage loans; consumer finance and SME funding services; credit, investment fund and asset management, and life and non-life insurance; and cash management, payments, trade finance, lease, money market, capital market products, and stockbroking services. It also provides digital and mobile banking services. The company was formerly known as KBC Bank and Insurance Holding Company NV and changed its name to KBC Group NV in March 2005. KBC Group NV was incorporated in 1935 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

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.