Preferred Bank (PFBC) Competitors

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) and Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends and risk.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in PEBO or PFBC?

60.7% of Peoples Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.8% of Preferred Bank shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Peoples Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better valuation & earnings, PEBO or PFBC?

Preferred Bank has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Peoples Bancorp. Preferred Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Peoples Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peoples Bancorp	$526.82M	2.05	$113.36M	$3.34	9.13
Preferred Bank	$299.09M	3.86	$150.04M	$10.36	7.72

Which has more risk & volatility, PEBO or PFBC?

Peoples Bancorp has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Preferred Bank has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is PEBO or PFBC more profitable?

Preferred Bank has a net margin of 28.70% compared to Preferred Bank's net margin of 20.17%. Peoples Bancorp's return on equity of 21.28% beat Preferred Bank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peoples Bancorp	20.17%	12.78%	1.45%
Preferred Bank	28.70%	21.28%	2.18%

Do analysts rate PEBO or PFBC?

Peoples Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $33.40, indicating a potential upside of 9.51%. Preferred Bank has a consensus target price of $67.00, indicating a potential downside of 16.22%. Given Preferred Bank's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Peoples Bancorp is more favorable than Preferred Bank.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peoples Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
Preferred Bank	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community favor PEBO or PFBC?

Preferred Bank received 56 more outperform votes than Peoples Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.46% of users gave Preferred Bank an outperform vote while only 55.93% of users gave Peoples Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Peoples Bancorp	Outperform Votes 269 55.93%	Underperform Votes 212 44.07%
Preferred Bank	Outperform Votes 325 66.46%	Underperform Votes 164 33.54%

Does the media refer more to PEBO or PFBC?

In the previous week, Preferred Bank had 3 more articles in the media than Peoples Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Preferred Bank and 0 mentions for Peoples Bancorp. Peoples Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 0.92 beat Preferred Bank's score of 0.00 indicating that Preferred Bank is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Peoples Bancorp	Neutral
Preferred Bank	Positive

Is PEBO or PFBC a better dividend stock?

Peoples Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Preferred Bank pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Peoples Bancorp pays out 47.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Preferred Bank pays out 27.0% 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. Peoples Bancorp has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years and Preferred Bank has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Peoples Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Preferred Bank beats Peoples Bancorp on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.