AMAL vs. BFST, AMNB, CSTR, MCB, SMBK, PFIS, BCAL, PLBC, FFNW, and ESSA
Should you be buying Amalgamated Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Amalgamated Financial include Business First Bancshares (BFST), American National Bankshares (AMNB), CapStar Financial (CSTR), Metropolitan Bank (MCB), SmartFinancial (SMBK), Peoples Financial Services (PFIS), Southern California Bancorp (BCAL), Plumas Bancorp (PLBC), First Financial Northwest (FFNW), and ESSA Bancorp (ESSA).
Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) and Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, community ranking and analyst recommendations.
47.4% of Business First Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.9% of Amalgamated Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Business First Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Amalgamated Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Business First Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Amalgamated Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Business First Bancshares pays out 21.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Amalgamated Financial pays out 14.0% 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. Business First Bancshares has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Business First Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Business First Bancshares received 39 more outperform votes than Amalgamated Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.73% of users gave Business First Bancshares an outperform vote while only 55.35% of users gave Amalgamated Financial an outperform vote.
Amalgamated Financial has a net margin of 22.71% compared to Amalgamated Financial's net margin of 18.22%. Business First Bancshares' return on equity of 16.60% beat Amalgamated Financial's return on equity.
Amalgamated Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Business First Bancshares. Business First Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amalgamated Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Amalgamated Financial had 12 more articles in the media than Business First Bancshares. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Amalgamated Financial and 1 mentions for Business First Bancshares. Amalgamated Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.33 beat Business First Bancshares' score of -0.27 indicating that Business First Bancshares is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Business First Bancshares has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amalgamated Financial has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Business First Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $23.33, suggesting a potential upside of 7.43%. Amalgamated Financial has a consensus target price of $29.75, suggesting a potential upside of 25.58%. Given Business First Bancshares' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Amalgamated Financial is more favorable than Business First Bancshares.
Summary
Amalgamated Financial beats Business First Bancshares on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AMAL 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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