Bridge Bancorp (BDGE) Competitors

Bridge Bancorp (NASDAQ:BDGE) and WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings and dividends.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in BDGE or WSBC?

58.8% of Bridge Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.4% of WesBanco shares are held by institutional investors. 15.5% of Bridge Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of WesBanco shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, BDGE or WSBC?

WesBanco has higher revenue and earnings than Bridge Bancorp. Bridge Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WesBanco, 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
Bridge Bancorp	$206.93M	2.73	$51.69M	$2.59	11.06
WesBanco	$600.17M	3.18	$151.51M	$2.24	12.74

Do analysts recommend BDGE or WSBC?

WesBanco has a consensus target price of $39.43, indicating a potential upside of 38.20%. Given WesBanco's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WesBanco is more favorable than Bridge Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bridge Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
WesBanco	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86

Is BDGE or WSBC more profitable?

Bridge Bancorp has a net margin of 23.05% compared to WesBanco's net margin of 15.89%. Bridge Bancorp's return on equity of 9.83% beat WesBanco's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bridge Bancorp	23.05%	9.83%	0.88%
WesBanco	15.89%	6.30%	0.86%

Which has more volatility and risk, BDGE or WSBC?

Bridge Bancorp has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WesBanco has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BDGE or WSBC a better dividend stock?

Bridge Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. WesBanco pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Bridge Bancorp pays out 37.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WesBanco pays out 66.1% 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. WesBanco has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. WesBanco is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in BDGE or WSBC?

Bridge Bancorp received 12 more outperform votes than WesBanco when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 55.93% of users gave Bridge Bancorp an outperform vote while only 51.33% of users gave WesBanco an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Bridge Bancorp	Outperform Votes 283 55.93%	Underperform Votes 223 44.07%
WesBanco	Outperform Votes 271 51.33%	Underperform Votes 257 48.67%

Does the media favor BDGE or WSBC?

In the previous week, WesBanco had 8 more articles in the media than Bridge Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for WesBanco and 0 mentions for Bridge Bancorp. WesBanco's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat Bridge Bancorp's score of 0.00 indicating that WesBanco is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Bridge Bancorp	Neutral
WesBanco	Positive

Summary

WesBanco beats Bridge Bancorp on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.