Preferred Bank (PFBC) Competitors

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

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%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PFBC or ABCB?

Ameris Bancorp received 82 more outperform votes than Preferred Bank when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.67% of users gave Preferred Bank an outperform vote while only 65.50% of users gave Ameris Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Preferred Bank	Outperform Votes 328 66.67%	Underperform Votes 164 33.33%
Ameris Bancorp	Outperform Votes 410 65.50%	Underperform Votes 216 34.50%

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 insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better earnings & valuation, 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	$281.54M	4.90	$150.04M	$9.98	9.59
Ameris Bancorp	$1.52B	3.26	$269.11M	$4.80	14.96

Does the media prefer PFBC or ABCB?

In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 2 more articles in the media than Preferred Bank. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 3 mentions for Preferred Bank. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Preferred Bank's score of 1.54 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	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Ameris Bancorp	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do analysts prefer PFBC or ABCB?

Preferred Bank currently has a consensus target price of $99.50, suggesting a potential upside of 4.00%. Ameris Bancorp has a consensus target price of $66.67, suggesting a potential downside of 7.14%. Given Preferred Bank's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly 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)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Ameris Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83

Is PFBC or ABCB a better dividend stock?

Preferred Bank pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Preferred Bank pays out 28.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameris Bancorp pays out 12.5% 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.

Which has more risk & volatility, PFBC or ABCB?

Preferred Bank has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ameris Bancorp beats Preferred Bank on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.