MRBK vs. LARK, CFBK, FNCB, UBFO, OPOF, HWBK, UBOH, FUNC, OPHC, and VABK
Should you be buying Meridian stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Meridian include Landmark Bancorp (LARK), CF Bankshares (CFBK), FNCB Bancorp (FNCB), United Security Bancshares (UBFO), Old Point Financial (OPOF), Hawthorn Bancshares (HWBK), United Bancshares (UBOH), First United (FUNC), OptimumBank (OPHC), and Virginia National Bankshares (VABK). These companies are all part of the "national commercial banks" industry.
Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) and Landmark Bancorp (NASDAQ:LARK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, community ranking, profitability, valuation and dividends.
Meridian presently has a consensus target price of $13.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.13%. Given Meridian's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Meridian is more favorable than Landmark Bancorp.
Meridian has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Landmark Bancorp has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Meridian has higher revenue and earnings than Landmark Bancorp. Landmark Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Meridian, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Landmark Bancorp has a net margin of 14.39% compared to Meridian's net margin of 6.75%. Landmark Bancorp's return on equity of 9.88% beat Meridian's return on equity.
Landmark Bancorp received 39 more outperform votes than Meridian when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.66% of users gave Landmark Bancorp an outperform vote while only 58.08% of users gave Meridian an outperform vote.
Meridian pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Landmark Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Meridian pays out 47.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Landmark Bancorp pays out 39.6% 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.
In the previous week, Meridian had 3 more articles in the media than Landmark Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Meridian and 3 mentions for Landmark Bancorp. Landmark Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.36 beat Meridian's score of 0.60 indicating that Landmark Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
58.6% of Meridian shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.7% of Landmark Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 14.0% of Meridian shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.2% of Landmark Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Landmark Bancorp beats Meridian on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MRBK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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