ISTR vs. PEBK, CWBC, OPBK, PWOD, MYFW, CFFI, CALB, FINW, MBCN, and BWFG
Should you be buying Investar stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Investar include Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina (PEBK), Community West Bancshares (CWBC), OP Bancorp (OPBK), Penns Woods Bancorp (PWOD), First Western Financial (MYFW), C&F Financial (CFFI), California BanCorp (CALB), FinWise Bancorp (FINW), Middlefield Banc (MBCN), and Bankwell Financial Group (BWFG). These companies are all part of the "state commercial banks" industry.
Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) and Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina (NASDAQ:PEBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking, media sentiment and valuation.
Investar has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina. Investar is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Investar received 64 more outperform votes than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.81% of users gave Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina an outperform vote while only 60.22% of users gave Investar an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Investar had 3 more articles in the media than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Investar and 2 mentions for Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina. Investar's average media sentiment score of 0.42 beat Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina's score of 0.35 indicating that Investar is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Investar has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Investar presently has a consensus price target of $16.08, indicating a potential upside of 0.08%. Given Investar's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Investar is more favorable than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina.
Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina has a net margin of 16.29% compared to Investar's net margin of 12.02%. Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina's return on equity of 14.14% beat Investar's return on equity.
Investar pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Investar pays out 22.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina pays out 25.9% 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.
50.2% of Investar shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.8% of Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.7% of Investar shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.9% of Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Investar beats Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ISTR 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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