SFST vs. LCNB, ATLO, FNLC, NKSH, CBNK, OCFC, BFC, FBMS, AMTB, and DCOM
Should you be buying Southern First Bancshares stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southern First Bancshares include LCNB (LCNB), Ames National (ATLO), First Bancorp (FNLC), National Bankshares (NKSH), Capital Bancorp (CBNK), OceanFirst Financial (OCFC), Bank First (BFC), First Bancshares (FBMS), Amerant Bancorp (AMTB), and Dime Community Bancshares (DCOM). These companies are all part of the "national commercial banks" industry.
Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) and LCNB (NASDAQ:LCNB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, community ranking, risk and dividends.
75.0% of Southern First Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 34.7% of LCNB shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.6% of Southern First Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.8% of LCNB shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Southern First Bancshares has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LCNB has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.
LCNB has a net margin of 10.16% compared to Southern First Bancshares' net margin of 6.69%. LCNB's return on equity of 7.31% beat Southern First Bancshares' return on equity.
LCNB received 41 more outperform votes than Southern First Bancshares when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.68% of users gave LCNB an outperform vote while only 53.35% of users gave Southern First Bancshares an outperform vote.
Southern First Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than LCNB. LCNB is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern First Bancshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Southern First Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $44.00, indicating a potential upside of 62.36%. Given Southern First Bancshares' higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Southern First Bancshares is more favorable than LCNB.
In the previous week, Southern First Bancshares had 2 more articles in the media than LCNB. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Southern First Bancshares and 2 mentions for LCNB. LCNB's average media sentiment score of 1.87 beat Southern First Bancshares' score of 1.35 indicating that LCNB is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Southern First Bancshares beats LCNB on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Southern First Bancshares News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for SFST and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SFST 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.
Southern First Bancshares Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
