Sifting through countless of stocks in the Banks industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc.

First Financial Bankshares, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides banking services in the United States. The company offers general commercial banking services, including checking, savings and time deposits, loans, automated teller machines, drive-in and night deposit services, safe deposit facilities, remote deposit capture, internet banking, mobile banking, payroll cards, funds transfer, and other customary commercial banking service. It also provides personal trust services, such as wealth management; administration of estates, oil and gas management; farm and ranch; property management; testamentary trusts; revocable and irrevocable trusts; and agency accounts. In addition, the company offers commercial and industrial; municipal; agricultural; construction and development; farm; residential; consumer auto and non-auto; and non-owner occupied and owner occupied commercial real estate loans. Further, it provides advice and specialized services related to lending, investing, purchasing, advertising, public relations, and technology services. First Financial Bankshares, Inc. was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Abilene, Texas.

Stellar Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company that provides a range of commercial banking products and services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, and individual customers. It offers deposit products that include checking accounts, commercial accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and other time deposits, as well as convenient services, such as telephone, mobile, and online banking. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans; commercial real estate loans comprising multi-family residential loans; commercial real estate construction and land development loans; residential real estate loans comprising 1-4 family residential mortgage loans, including home equity and home improvement loans, and home equity lines of credit; commercial and retail lending services, such as loans to small businesses, mortgage loans, personal loans, and automobile loans; and factoring services. In addition, it offers safe deposit boxes, debit cards, cash management and wire transfer services, night depository services, direct deposits, cashier’s checks, and letters of credit. Stellar Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Latest Banks and First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp, Inc. Stock News

As of February 11, 2026, First Financial Bankshares, Inc. had a $4.8 billion market capitalization, compared to the Banks median of $562.5 million. First Financial Bankshares, Inc.’s stock is up 12.6% in 2026, down 1.6% in the previous five trading days and down 10.06% in the past year.

Currently, First Financial Bankshares, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 19.9. First Financial Bankshares, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $581.9 million with a 42.1% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 2.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $1.982 per share for the current fiscal year. First Financial Bankshares, Inc. currently has a 2.3% dividend yield.

As of February 11, 2026, Stellar Bancorp, Inc. had a $2.0 billion market cap, putting it in the 55th percentile of all stocks. Stellar Bancorp, Inc.’s stock is up 28.3% in 2026, up 2.7% in the previous five trading days and up 38.03% in the past year.

Currently, Stellar Bancorp, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 20.5. Stellar Bancorp, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $416.5 million with a 24.9% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was -7.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $2.177 per share for the current fiscal year. Stellar Bancorp, Inc. currently has a 1.5% dividend yield.

How We Compare First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
First Financial Bankshares, Inc.	FFIN	D
Stellar Bancorp, Inc.	STEL	C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

First Financial Bankshares, Inc. has a Value Score of 35, which is Expensive. Stellar Bancorp, Inc. has a Value Score of 49, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
First Financial Bankshares, Inc.	FFIN	A
Stellar Bancorp, Inc.	STEL	C

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

First Financial Bankshares, Inc. has a Growth Score of 97, which is Very Strong. Stellar Bancorp, Inc. has a Growth Score of 49, which is Average.

The Growth Grade Winner: First Financial Bankshares, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, First Financial Bankshares, Inc. has a more attractive growth grade than Stellar Bancorp, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, First Financial Bankshares, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
First Financial Bankshares, Inc.	FFIN	F
Stellar Bancorp, Inc.	STEL	D

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

First Financial Bankshares, Inc. has a Quality Score of 15, which is Very Weak. Stellar Bancorp, Inc. has a Quality Score of 28, which is Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp or Inc. has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to quality.

Other First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc. Grades

In addition to Quality, Growth and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Estimate Revisions.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp or Inc. Stock?

Overall, First Financial Bankshares, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 35, Growth Score of 97 and Quality Score of 15.

Stellar Bancorp, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 49, Growth Score of 49 and Quality Score of 28.

Comparing First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Stellar Bancorp and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.