UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCRY) and Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) Head-To-Head Analysis

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) and UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCRY) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Shore Bancshares and UniCredit, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shore Bancshares	0	0	1	0	3.00
UniCredit	0	0	0	0	N/A

Shore Bancshares presently has a consensus target price of $16.00, suggesting a potential upside of 53.40%. Given Shore Bancshares’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Shore Bancshares is more favorable than UniCredit.

Dividends

Shore Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. UniCredit pays an annual dividend of $0.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Shore Bancshares pays out 73.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

59.8% of Shore Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.3% of UniCredit shares are held by institutional investors. 11.3% of Shore Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Shore Bancshares and UniCredit’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shore Bancshares	5.82%	6.47%	0.59%
UniCredit	35.89%	14.67%	1.08%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Shore Bancshares and UniCredit’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shore Bancshares	$159.65 million	2.17	$11.23 million	$0.65	16.05
UniCredit	$26.50 billion	2.38	$9.32 billion	N/A	N/A

UniCredit has higher revenue and earnings than Shore Bancshares.

Volatility and Risk

Shore Bancshares has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UniCredit has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

UniCredit beats Shore Bancshares on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shore Bancshares

Shore Bancshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for the Shore United Bank, N.A. that provides various commercial and consumer banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations. It offers checking, savings, overnight investment sweep, and money market accounts; and regular and IRA certificates of deposit, as well as CDARS programs and cash management services. The company also provides commercial loans, such as secured and unsecured loans, working capital loans, lines of credit, term loans, accounts receivable financing, real estate acquisition and development loans, construction loans, and letters of credit; residential real estate construction loans; residential mortgage loans; and loans to consumers, including home equity, automobile, installment, home improvement, and personal lines of credit, as well as other consumer financing products. In addition, it offers trust, asset management, and financial planning services; treasury management services, such as merchant card processing, remote deposit capture, and ACH origination, as well as telephone, mobile, and Internet banking services; safe deposit boxes; debit and credit cards; and automatic teller machine services. Shore Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Easton, Maryland.

About UniCredit

UniCredit S.p.A. provides commercial banking services in Italy, Germany, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. It offers retail, private, and wealth management solutions; and institutional investor solutions. The company also provides corporate finance advisory, rating advisory, financial sponsor, patient capital, capital structure advisory, and finance solutions, as well as securities services. In addition, it offers transactional and risk management, and strategic advisory and funding services; group trade and correspondent banking services; and payments and cash management solutions. The company serves SME, corporate, multinational corporate, financial institution, and public sector clients, as well as retail, private banking, wealth management, and family office clients. The company was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.