C&F Financial (CFFI) Competitors

C&F Financial (NASDAQ:CFFI) and Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Is CFFI or HFWA more profitable?

Heritage Financial has a net margin of 15.22% compared to C&F Financial's net margin of 13.67%. C&F Financial's return on equity of 10.64% beat Heritage Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
C&F Financial	13.67%	10.64%	0.95%
Heritage Financial	15.22%	7.34%	0.90%

Is CFFI or HFWA a better dividend stock?

C&F Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Heritage Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. C&F Financial pays out 24.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heritage Financial pays out 67.1% 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. C&F Financial has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Heritage Financial has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Heritage Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do analysts rate CFFI or HFWA?

Heritage Financial has a consensus price target of $27.67, suggesting a potential upside of 25.02%. Given Heritage Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Heritage Financial is more favorable than C&F Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
C&F Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Heritage Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Does the media favor CFFI or HFWA?

In the previous week, Heritage Financial had 9 more articles in the media than C&F Financial. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Heritage Financial and 1 mentions for C&F Financial. C&F Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat Heritage Financial's score of 0.97 indicating that C&F Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
C&F Financial	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Heritage Financial	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, CFFI or HFWA?

Heritage Financial has higher revenue and earnings than C&F Financial. C&F Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heritage Financial, 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
C&F Financial	$131.60M	1.56	$19.83M	$7.55	8.39
Heritage Financial	$317.18M	2.38	$43.26M	$1.43	15.48

Do institutionals and insiders believe in CFFI or HFWA?

37.2% of C&F Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.3% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.3% of C&F Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk and volatility, CFFI or HFWA?

C&F Financial has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heritage Financial has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Heritage Financial beats C&F Financial on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.