ONB vs WTFC: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: ONB is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. ONB and WTFC share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined ONB and WTFC exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ: ONB) is the holding company for Old National Bank, a super-regional bank headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, with a large operational base in Chicago and a footprint concentrated across the Midwest. Following its May 2025 acquisition of Bremer Bank, the company holds roughly $70 billion in total assets and more than $30 billion in wealth assets under management, making it among the top 25 banking companies headquartered in the United States and one of the largest commercial banks in the Midwest. Like most banks, it earns money in two broad ways: net interest income, the spread between what it earns on loans and securities and what it pays on deposits (roughly $2.4 billion on a full-year 2025 basis), and noninterest fee income from wealth management, mortgage banking, treasury management, and capital markets.

Full ONB guide

Wintrust Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: WTFC) is a financial holding company headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois, and founded in 1991, with roughly $71 billion in assets as of the end of 2025. Its distinctive model keeps a family of separately chartered, locally branded community banks close to customers across the Chicago metropolitan area, southern Wisconsin, and northwest Indiana, while the parent company provides capital, risk management, product breadth, and shared infrastructure. Wintrust operates through three segments: Community Banking (commercial and personal banking, mortgage lending, and treasury management), Specialty Finance (insurance premium finance for businesses and individuals, plus accounts receivable financing and outsourced administrative services), and Wealth Management (advisory and trust services with more than $50 billion in assets under administration).

Full WTFC guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• ONB drivers: Growth through acquisition and scale; Solid margin and cost discipline.
• WTFC drivers: Steady loan and deposit growth; Stable net interest margin.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Old National is sensitive to interest rates: net interest income (about $2.4 billion in 2025) is its largest revenue line, so falling rates, deposit repricing, or an inverted yield curve can compress the margin and earnings. For WTFC, wintrust is exposed to the credit cycle: as a Midwest commercial and consumer lender, a recession or rising unemployment would increase loan losses, particularly in commercial real estate, commercial lending, and consumer credit.

Pick ONB if you believe its drivers more; WTFC if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the ONB and WTFC guides.

ONB. Reading a regional bank means looking past a single earnings number to a few structural metrics. The net interest margin (around 3.65% in Q4 2025) shows how profitably the bank lends relative to its funding costs, and the efficiency ratio (an adjusted ~48.8% for 2025) measures how lean the operation is, where lower is better. Note the gap between GAAP EPS of $1.79 and adjusted EPS of $2.21, which reflects one-time merger and integration charges from the Bremer deal, so the adjusted figure is a cleaner read on underlying run-rate earnings. A trailing P/E near 13 is in the typical range for regional banks, which tend to trade at lower multiples than the broader market because their earnings are cyclical and rate-sensitive. The distinctive feature here is the growth-by-acquisition scale-up; the open question is how much of the Bremer benefit is already reflected in the share price versus still to be realized through integration.

WTFC. Wintrust trades at roughly 13 times earnings with a market capitalization near $11 billion, a valuation in line with other mid-cap regional banks rather than a growth premium. The story is one of steady compounding: record net income, double-digit loan and deposit growth, and a stable margin near 3.5%. Because it is a bank, its earnings and share price are cyclical and tend to track interest rates, credit conditions, and sentiment toward the broader regional-bank group.

Headline figures (approximate, JULY 2026): ONB shows revenue (net interest income + fees, fy2025) ~$2.9 billion, net interest income (fy2025) ~$2.4 billion, net income to common (fy2025) ~$653 million GAAP (~$809 million adjusted), diluted eps (fy2025) $1.79 GAAP ($2.21 adjusted); WTFC shows full-year 2025 net income ~$823.8 million (record), full-year 2025 diluted eps $11.40 (up from $10.31 in 2024), q1 2026 net income ~$227.4 million ($3.22 per diluted share), total assets (dec 2025) ~$71.1 billion.

ONB and WTFC are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined ONB and WTFC exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.