ECB Bancorp (ECBK) Competitors

ECB Bancorp (NASDAQ:ECBK) and SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and profitability.

Do analysts recommend ECBK or SMBK?

SmartFinancial has a consensus target price of $33.70, suggesting a potential upside of 4.43%. Given SmartFinancial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SmartFinancial is more favorable than ECB Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ECB Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
SmartFinancial	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, ECBK or SMBK?

SmartFinancial has higher revenue and earnings than ECB Bancorp. SmartFinancial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ECB Bancorp, 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
ECB Bancorp	$26.92M	5.09	$3.99M	$0.56	27.13
SmartFinancial	$178.24M	3.08	$36.14M	$2.26	14.28

Does the media refer more to ECBK or SMBK?

In the previous week, ECB Bancorp had 2 more articles in the media than SmartFinancial. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for ECB Bancorp and 2 mentions for SmartFinancial. SmartFinancial's average media sentiment score of 1.75 beat ECB Bancorp's score of 0.39 indicating that SmartFinancial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
ECB Bancorp	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
SmartFinancial	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Is ECBK or SMBK more profitable?

SmartFinancial has a net margin of 12.67% compared to ECB Bancorp's net margin of 5.85%. SmartFinancial's return on equity of 7.33% beat ECB Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ECB Bancorp	5.85%	2.40%	0.30%
SmartFinancial	12.67%	7.33%	0.71%

Which has more risk & volatility, ECBK or SMBK?

ECB Bancorp has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SmartFinancial has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in ECBK or SMBK?

30.3% of ECB Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.8% of SmartFinancial shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.0% of ECB Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of SmartFinancial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ECBK or SMBK?

SmartFinancial received 193 more outperform votes than ECB Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
ECB Bancorp	N/A	N/A
SmartFinancial	Outperform Votes 193 57.96%	Underperform Votes 140 42.04%

Summary

SmartFinancial beats ECB Bancorp on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.