C&F Financial (CFFI) Competitors

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

Which has better valuation and earnings, HFWA or CFFI?

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
Heritage Financial	$317.18M	2.38	$43.26M	$1.43	15.48
C&F Financial	$131.60M	1.56	$19.83M	$7.55	8.39

Do analysts rate HFWA or CFFI?

Heritage Financial currently has a consensus target price of $27.67, suggesting a potential upside of 25.02%. Given Heritage Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Heritage Financial is more favorable than C&F Financial.

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

Is HFWA or CFFI more profitable?

Heritage Financial has a net margin of 15.22% compared to C&F Financial's net margin of 13.67%. C&F Financial's return on equity of 10.64% beat Heritage Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heritage Financial	15.22%	7.34%	0.90%
C&F Financial	13.67%	10.64%	0.95%

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in HFWA or CFFI?

78.3% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.2% of C&F Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of C&F Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, HFWA or CFFI?

Heritage Financial has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, C&F Financial has a beta of 0.44, suggesting that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is HFWA or CFFI a better dividend stock?

Heritage Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. C&F Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Heritage Financial pays out 67.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. C&F Financial pays out 24.4% 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 increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and C&F Financial has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Heritage Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media prefer HFWA or CFFI?

In the previous week, Heritage Financial had 9 more articles in the media than C&F Financial. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Heritage Financial and 1 mentions for C&F Financial. C&F Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat Heritage Financial's score of 0.97 indicating that C&F Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Heritage Financial	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
C&F Financial	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Heritage Financial beats C&F Financial on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.