Preferred Bank (PFBC) Competitors

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

Is PFBC or ABCB a better dividend stock?

Preferred Bank pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Preferred Bank pays out 30.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameris Bancorp pays out 16.7% 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.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in PFBC or ABCB?

72.8% of Preferred Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is PFBC or ABCB more profitable?

Preferred Bank has a net margin of 26.20% compared to Ameris Bancorp's net margin of 20.08%. Preferred Bank's return on equity of 19.01% beat Ameris Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Preferred Bank	26.20%	19.01%	2.01%
Ameris Bancorp	20.08%	9.18%	1.25%

Do analysts rate PFBC or ABCB?

Preferred Bank currently has a consensus price target of $99.50, indicating a potential upside of 14.70%. Ameris Bancorp has a consensus price target of $69.17, indicating a potential upside of 6.10%. Given Preferred Bank's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Preferred Bank is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Preferred Bank	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Ameris Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83

Which has more volatility and risk, PFBC or ABCB?

Preferred Bank has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PFBC or ABCB?

Ameris Bancorp received 83 more outperform votes than Preferred Bank when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.53% of users gave Preferred Bank an outperform vote while only 65.55% of users gave Ameris Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Preferred Bank	Outperform Votes 328 66.53%	Underperform Votes 165 33.47%
Ameris Bancorp	Outperform Votes 411 65.55%	Underperform Votes 216 34.45%

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, PFBC or ABCB?

Ameris Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Preferred Bank. Preferred Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ameris 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
Preferred Bank	$485.10M	2.58	$150.04M	$9.98	8.69
Ameris Bancorp	$1.52B	2.96	$269.11M	$4.80	13.58

Does the media refer more to PFBC or ABCB?

In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 1 more articles in the media than Preferred Bank. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 4 mentions for Preferred Bank. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat Preferred Bank's score of 0.00 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Preferred Bank	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Ameris Bancorp	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Ameris Bancorp beats Preferred Bank on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.