Critical Review: Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) and Civista Bancshares (NASDAQ:CIVB)

Civista Bancshares (NASDAQ:CIVB) and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.1% of Civista Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of Civista Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Civista Bancshares and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Civista Bancshares	0	3	3	0	2.50
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	1	2	0	0	1.67

Civista Bancshares presently has a consensus target price of $30.25, indicating a potential upside of 5.57%. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores has a consensus target price of $5.00, indicating a potential upside of 26.74%. Given Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores is more favorable than Civista Bancshares.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Civista Bancshares and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Civista Bancshares	$186.22 million	3.19	$46.21 million	$2.79	10.27
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	$6.76 billion	0.69	$344.37 million	$0.40	9.86

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores has higher revenue and earnings than Civista Bancshares. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Civista Bancshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Civista Bancshares and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Civista Bancshares	21.82%	10.98%	1.41%
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	5.08%	6.06%	0.60%

Volatility & Risk

Civista Bancshares has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Civista Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Civista Bancshares pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays out 40.0% 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. Civista Bancshares has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Summary

Civista Bancshares beats Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Civista Bancshares

Civista Bancshares, Inc. is a bank holding company and the parent of Civista Bank, a community bank headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio. The bank provides personal and business banking services, including deposit accounts, commercial and consumer lending, and mortgage services. Civista Bank also offers services such as treasury management and wealth management. Its banking network serves customers in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The bank traces its history to Citizens Banking Company, established in Ohio in 1884.

About Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores is a Colombian financial holding company with businesses in banking, asset management, investment banking and infrastructure. Its financial services include commercial and consumer banking, pension and severance fund management, and services for businesses and institutional clients. In Colombia, the group’s banking interests include Banco de Bogotá, Banco de Occidente, Banco Popular and Banco AV Villas. It also has a presence in Central America through BAC, which provides banking and other financial services in the region.