ISTR vs. PEBK, FUNC, WNEB, ESSA, PWOD, FGBI, UBFO, FCCO, FFNW, and CHMG
Should you be buying Investar stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Investar include Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina (PEBK), First United (FUNC), Western New England Bancorp (WNEB), ESSA Bancorp (ESSA), Penns Woods Bancorp (PWOD), First Guaranty Bancshares (FGBI), United Security Bancshares (UBFO), First Community (FCCO), First Financial Northwest (FFNW), and Chemung Financial (CHMG).
Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina (NASDAQ:PEBK) and Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, media sentiment, risk, valuation, community ranking and earnings.
In the previous week, Investar had 3 more articles in the media than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Investar and 4 mentions for Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina. Investar's average media sentiment score of 0.73 beat Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina's score of -0.07 indicating that Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina is being referred to more favorably in the media.
43.8% of Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.2% of Investar shares are held by institutional investors. 17.4% of Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of Investar shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Investar has a consensus target price of $16.08, suggesting a potential downside of 1.15%. Given Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Investar is more favorable than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina.
Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina has a net margin of 16.40% compared to Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina's net margin of 11.94%. Investar's return on equity of 13.65% beat Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina's return on equity.
Investar received 65 more outperform votes than Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.82% of users gave Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina an outperform vote while only 60.11% of users gave Investar an outperform vote.
Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Investar pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina pays out 27.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Investar pays out 23.7% 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. Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and Investar has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years. Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investar has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Investar has higher revenue and earnings 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.
Summary
Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina beats Investar on 11 of the 20 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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