Critical Contrast: Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) vs. FirstSun Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSUN)

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) and FirstSun Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSUN) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.5% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Wintrust Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of FirstSun Capital Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Wintrust Financial and FirstSun Capital Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wintrust Financial	0	2	10	1	2.92
FirstSun Capital Bancorp	0	0	4	0	3.00

Wintrust Financial currently has a consensus price target of $147.31, indicating a potential upside of 8.65%. FirstSun Capital Bancorp has a consensus price target of $46.00, indicating a potential upside of 21.76%. Given FirstSun Capital Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe FirstSun Capital Bancorp is more favorable than Wintrust Financial.

Profitability

This table compares Wintrust Financial and FirstSun Capital Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wintrust Financial	18.06%	12.08%	1.12%
FirstSun Capital Bancorp	15.99%	9.24%	1.19%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Wintrust Financial and FirstSun Capital Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wintrust Financial	$3.97 billion	2.29	$695.04 million	$10.57	12.83
FirstSun Capital Bancorp	$549.33 million	1.91	$75.63 million	$3.13	12.07

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

Risk & Volatility

Wintrust Financial has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstSun Capital Bancorp has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Wintrust Financial beats FirstSun Capital Bancorp on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services. It also engages in the retail origination and purchase of residential mortgages; and provision of lending, deposits, and treasury management services to condominium, homeowner, and community associations, as well as asset-based lending for middle-market companies. In addition, this segment offers loan and deposit services to mortgage brokerage companies; lending to restaurant franchisees; direct leasing; small business administration loans; commercial mortgages and construction loans; and financial solutions. It provides personal and commercial banking services primarily to individuals, small to mid-sized businesses, local governmental units, and institutional clients. The Specialty Finance segment offers commercial and life insurance premiums financing for businesses and individuals; accounts receivable financing, value-added, and out-sourced administrative services; other specialty finance services; equipment financing through structured loan and lease products; and property and casualty premium financing; as well as data processing of payrolls, billing, and cash management services to temporary staffing industry. The Wealth Management segment provides wealth management services, such as trust and investment, asset management, tax-deferred exchange, securities brokerage, and retirement plan services. Wintrust Financial Corporation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.

About FirstSun Capital Bancorp

FirstSun Capital Bancorp engages in the provision of commercial banking services. It operates through the following segments: Banking, Mortgage Operations, and Corporate. The Banking segment consists of loans and provides deposits and fee-based services to consumer, business, and mortgage lending customers. The Mortgage Operations segment originates, sells, services, and manages market risk from changes in interest rates on one-to-four family residential mortgage loans to sell and hold. The company is founded on November 9, 1981 headquartered in Denver, CO.