SPFI vs. WASH, THFF, FMNB, CCBG, MCB, HONE, CCNE, MCBC, HTBK, and MSBI
Should you be buying South Plains Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of South Plains Financial include Washington Trust Bancorp (WASH), First Financial (THFF), Farmers National Banc (FMNB), Capital City Bank Group (CCBG), Metropolitan Bank (MCB), HarborOne Bancorp (HONE), CNB Financial (CCNE), Macatawa Bank (MCBC), Heritage Commerce (HTBK), and Midland States Bancorp (MSBI). These companies are all part of the "state commercial banks" industry.
Washington Trust Bancorp (NASDAQ:WASH) and South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, community ranking, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.
Washington Trust Bancorp received 143 more outperform votes than South Plains Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.74% of users gave Washington Trust Bancorp an outperform vote while only 53.66% of users gave South Plains Financial an outperform vote.
Washington Trust Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.1%. South Plains Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Washington Trust Bancorp pays out 82.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. South Plains Financial pays out 15.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Washington Trust Bancorp has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and South Plains Financial has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Washington Trust Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Washington Trust Bancorp had 4 more articles in the media than South Plains Financial. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Washington Trust Bancorp and 0 mentions for South Plains Financial. South Plains Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.59 beat Washington Trust Bancorp's score of 0.00 indicating that Washington Trust Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Washington Trust Bancorp has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, South Plains Financial has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.
South Plains Financial has a consensus price target of $31.00, indicating a potential upside of 13.18%. Given Washington Trust Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe South Plains Financial is more favorable than Washington Trust Bancorp.
South Plains Financial has a net margin of 21.23% compared to South Plains Financial's net margin of 12.01%. Washington Trust Bancorp's return on equity of 11.19% beat South Plains Financial's return on equity.
65.8% of Washington Trust Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.0% of South Plains Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Washington Trust Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.4% of South Plains Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
South Plains Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Washington Trust Bancorp. South Plains Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Washington Trust Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
South Plains Financial beats Washington Trust Bancorp on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SPFI and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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