Sifting through countless of stocks in the Financial Services 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 Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation or Merchants Bancorp 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 Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation provides a secondary market for various loans made to borrowers in the United States. It operates through seven segments: Farm & Ranch, Corporate AgFinance, Power & Utilities, Broadband Infrastructure, Renewable Energy, Funding, and Investments. The Farm & Ranch segment includes the USDA Securities portfolio, Farm & Ranch loans, and AgVantage securities secured by Farm & Ranch loans. The Corporate AgFinance segment includes loans and AgVantage securities to larger and more complex farming operations, agribusinesses focused on food and fiber processing, and other supply chain production. The Power & Utilities segment includes loans to rural electric generation and transmission cooperatives and distribution cooperatives, as well as AgVantage securities secured by those types of loans. The Broadband Infrastructure segment includes loans to rural fiber, cable/broadband, tower, wireless, local exchange carrier, and data center projects. The Renewable Energy segment includes rural electric, solar, wind, and gas projects. The Funding segment includes debt issuance, hedging, asset/liability management, and capital allocation. The Investments segment includes an investment portfolio, which is held for liquidity purposes. The company is involved in a line of agricultural finance business, including purchasing and retaining eligible loans and securities; guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on securities that represent interests in, or obligations secured by pools of eligible loans; servicing eligible loans; and issuing long-term standby purchase commitments for designated eligible loans. Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Washington, District Of Columbia.

Merchants Bancorp operates as the diversified bank holding company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Multi-family Mortgage Banking, Mortgage Warehousing, and Banking. The Multi-family Mortgage Banking segment engages in the mortgage banking, which originates, and services government sponsored mortgages, including bridge financing products to refinance, acquire, or reposition multi-family housing projects, and construction lending for housing development and healthcare facilities financing. This segment also offers customized loan products for need-based skilled nursing facilities, such as independent living, assisted living, and memory care; and tax credit equity syndicator service. The Mortgage Warehousing segment funds agency eligible residential loans, as well as commercial loans to non-depository financial institutions. The Banking segment offers a range of financial products and services to consumers and businesses, which includes retail banking, commercial lending, agricultural lending, retail and correspondent residential mortgage banking, and small business administration lending. Merchants Bancorp was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

Latest Financial Services and Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, Merchants Bancorp Stock News

As of July 31, 2026, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation had a $2.4 billion market capitalization, compared to the Financial Services median of $2.4 million. Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation’s stock is up 29.6% in 2026, up 8.6% in the previous five trading days and up 32% in the past year.

Currently, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 12.5. Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $407.6 million with a 56.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 25.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $20.720 per share for the current fiscal year. Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation currently has a 2.8% dividend yield.

As of July 31, 2026, Merchants Bancorp had a $2.5 billion market cap, putting it in the 57th percentile of all stocks. Merchants Bancorp’s stock is up 62% in 2026, up 15.7% in the previous five trading days and up 77.71% in the past year.

Currently, Merchants Bancorp’s price-earnings ratio is 13.5. Merchants Bancorp’s trailing 12-month revenue is $585.5 million with a 42.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 15.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $5.443 per share for the current fiscal year. Merchants Bancorp currently has a 0.8% dividend yield.

How We Compare Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp 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 Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

Learn more about A+ Investor here!

Sign Up to Receive a Free Special Report Showing How A+ Grades Can Help You Make Smarter Investment Decisions

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation	AGM	A
Merchants Bancorp	MBIN	D

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.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong. Merchants Bancorp has a Growth Score of 29, which is Weak.

The Growth Grade Winner: Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation has a more attractive growth grade than Merchants Bancorp. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation 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.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation	AGM	D
Merchants Bancorp	MBIN	F

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.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation has a Quality Score of 37, which is Weak. Merchants Bancorp has a Quality Score of 8, which is Very Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation or Merchants Bancorp 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 Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation or Merchants Bancorp is the better investment when it comes to quality.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation	AGM	B
Merchants Bancorp	MBIN	A

Momentum grades help to 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. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation has a Momentum Score of 79, which is Strong. Merchants Bancorp has a Momentum Score of 87, which is Very Strong.

The Momentum Grade Winner: Merchants Bancorp

As you can clearly see from the Momentum Grade breakdown above, Merchants Bancorp is considered to have stronger momentum compared to Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. For those specifically looking for companies that have stronger momentum compared to other companies in the same industry, Merchants Bancorp could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp Grades

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

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).

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.

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 Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation or Merchants Bancorp Stock?

Overall, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation stock has a Growth Score of 89, Momentum Score of 79 and Quality Score of 37.

Merchants Bancorp stock has a Growth Score of 29, Momentum Score of 87 and Quality Score of 8.

Comparing Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and Merchants Bancorp’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.