Peoples Financial Services (PFIS) Competitors

LexinFintech (NASDAQ:LX) and Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Do analysts prefer LX or PFIS?

LexinFintech presently has a consensus target price of $13.60, indicating a potential upside of 22.41%. Peoples Financial Services has a consensus target price of $50.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.78%. Given LexinFintech's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe LexinFintech is more favorable than Peoples Financial Services.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LexinFintech	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Peoples Financial Services	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media favor LX or PFIS?

In the previous week, LexinFintech had 5 more articles in the media than Peoples Financial Services. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for LexinFintech and 2 mentions for Peoples Financial Services. Peoples Financial Services' average media sentiment score of 1.71 beat LexinFintech's score of 0.74 indicating that Peoples Financial Services is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
LexinFintech	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Peoples Financial Services	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has higher valuation and earnings, LX or PFIS?

LexinFintech has higher revenue and earnings than Peoples Financial Services. LexinFintech is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Peoples Financial Services, 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
LexinFintech	$14.20B	0.13	$150.14M	$0.90	12.34
Peoples Financial Services	$134.33M	3.33	$8.50M	$1.13	39.58

Is LX or PFIS more profitable?

LexinFintech has a net margin of 5.34% compared to Peoples Financial Services' net margin of 3.70%. Peoples Financial Services' return on equity of 8.97% beat LexinFintech's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LexinFintech	5.34%	7.47%	3.26%
Peoples Financial Services	3.70%	8.97%	0.82%

Which has more risk & volatility, LX or PFIS?

LexinFintech has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peoples Financial Services has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in LX or PFIS?

31.7% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. 27.8% of LexinFintech shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LX or PFIS?

LexinFintech received 133 more outperform votes than Peoples Financial Services when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.65% of users gave LexinFintech an outperform vote while only 52.43% of users gave Peoples Financial Services an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
LexinFintech	Outperform Votes 241 59.65%	Underperform Votes 163 40.35%
Peoples Financial Services	Outperform Votes 108 52.43%	Underperform Votes 98 47.57%

Is LX or PFIS a better dividend stock?

LexinFintech pays an annual dividend of $0.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Peoples Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $2.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. LexinFintech pays out 18.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Peoples Financial Services pays out 218.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

LexinFintech beats Peoples Financial Services on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.