C&F Financial (CFFI) Competitors

C&F Financial (NASDAQ:CFFI) and Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CFFI or HFWA?

Heritage Financial received 143 more outperform votes than C&F Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 67.96% of users gave C&F Financial an outperform vote while only 57.93% of users gave Heritage Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
C&F Financial	Outperform Votes 193 67.96%	Underperform Votes 91 32.04%
Heritage Financial	Outperform Votes 336 57.93%	Underperform Votes 244 42.07%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in CFFI or HFWA?

37.2% of C&F Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.3% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.3% of C&F Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is CFFI or HFWA more profitable?

Heritage Financial has a net margin of 13.64% compared to C&F Financial's net margin of 11.67%. C&F Financial's return on equity of 8.97% beat Heritage Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
C&F Financial	11.67%	8.97%	0.79%
Heritage Financial	13.64%	7.17%	0.87%

Is CFFI or HFWA a better dividend stock?

C&F Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Heritage Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. C&F Financial pays out 27.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heritage Financial pays out 64.9% 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. Heritage Financial has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Heritage Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, CFFI or HFWA?

C&F Financial has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heritage Financial has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer CFFI or HFWA?

In the previous week, Heritage Financial had 22 more articles in the media than C&F Financial. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for Heritage Financial and 4 mentions for C&F Financial. C&F Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat Heritage Financial's score of 0.55 indicating that C&F Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
C&F Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Heritage Financial	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better earnings and valuation, CFFI or HFWA?

Heritage Financial has higher revenue and earnings than C&F Financial. C&F Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heritage Financial, 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
C&F Financial	$123.69M	1.70	$19.92M	$6.68	9.70
Heritage Financial	$225.80M	3.44	$43.26M	$1.48	15.42

Do analysts recommend CFFI or HFWA?

Heritage Financial has a consensus target price of $27.67, indicating a potential upside of 21.24%. Given Heritage Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Heritage Financial is more favorable than C&F Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
C&F Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Heritage Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Summary

Heritage Financial beats C&F Financial on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.