Head-To-Head Contrast: Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) versus BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF)

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) and BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Dividends

Lloyds Banking Group pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. BancFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Lloyds Banking Group pays out 37.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. BancFirst pays out 26.5% 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. BancFirst has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Lloyds Banking Group and BancFirst’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lloyds Banking Group	24.97%	10.94%	0.54%
BancFirst	25.61%	13.44%	1.70%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

2.2% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.7% of BancFirst shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 31.7% of BancFirst shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Lloyds Banking Group has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BancFirst has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lloyds Banking Group and BancFirst”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lloyds Banking Group	$21.25 billion	4.02	$6.14 billion	$0.43	13.71
BancFirst	$722.96 million	5.21	$240.61 million	$7.41	15.13

Lloyds Banking Group has higher revenue and earnings than BancFirst. Lloyds Banking Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BancFirst, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Lloyds Banking Group and BancFirst, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lloyds Banking Group	0	4	8	0	2.67
BancFirst	0	4	0	0	2.00

BancFirst has a consensus target price of $123.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.71%. Given BancFirst’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe BancFirst is more favorable than Lloyds Banking Group.

Summary

BancFirst beats Lloyds Banking Group on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates in three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, and credit cards to personal customers. The Commercial Banking segment provides lending, transactional banking, working capital management, risk management, and debt financing services to small and medium-sized entities, corporates, and institutions. The Insurance, Pensions, and Investments segment offers insurance, investment, and pension management products and services. It also provides digital banking services. The company offers its products and services under the Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, Schroders Personal Wealth, Black Horse, Lex Autolease, Birmingham Midshires, LDC, AMC, Embark Group, Citra, IWeb, Cavendish Online, and Tusker brand names. Lloyds Banking Group plc was founded in 1695 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About BancFirst

BancFirst Corporation operates as the bank holding company for BancFirst that provides a range of commercial banking services to retail customers, and small to medium-sized businesses. The company operates through BancFirst Metropolitan Banks, BancFirst Community Banks, Pegasus, Worthington, and Other Financial Services segments. It offers checking accounts, negotiable order of withdrawal accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, sweep accounts, club accounts, individual retirement accounts, and certificates of deposit, as well as overdraft protection and auto draft services. The company also provides commercial and agricultural non-real estate loans for working capital, facilities acquisition or expansion, purchase of equipment, and other needs; lending services that include private banking, energy, commercial and residential real estate, and commercial and industrial loans; and loans to finance purchases of consumer goods, such as automobiles, boats, household goods, vacations, and education. In addition, it engages in the investment management and administration of trusts for individuals, corporations, and employee benefit plans, as well as bond trustee and paying agent business for various Oklahoma municipalities and governmental entities; and provision of item processing, research, and other correspondent banking services to financial institutions and governmental units. Further, the company provides insurance agency services; depository and funds transfer, collection, safe deposit box, cash management, and other services. It serves customers in non-metropolitan trade centers and cities in the metropolitan statistical areas of Oklahoma. The company was formerly known as United Community Corporation and changed its name to BancFirst Corporation in November 1988. BancFirst Corporation was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.