Peoples Bancorp (PEBO) Competitors

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) and Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and media sentiment.

Is PEBO or ABCB more profitable?

Ameris Bancorp has a net margin of 21.46% compared to Peoples Bancorp's net margin of 18.90%. Peoples Bancorp's return on equity of 11.07% beat Ameris Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peoples Bancorp	18.90%	11.07%	1.31%
Ameris Bancorp	21.46%	9.57%	1.32%

Does the media favor PEBO or ABCB?

In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 9 more articles in the media than Peoples Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 2 mentions for Peoples Bancorp. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.60 beat Peoples Bancorp's score of 1.13 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Peoples Bancorp	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ameris Bancorp	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has better valuation & earnings, PEBO or ABCB?

Ameris Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Peoples Bancorp. Peoples Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ameris 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
Peoples Bancorp	$443.50M	2.37	$117.21M	$3.15	9.35
Ameris Bancorp	$1.12B	3.76	$358.68M	$5.40	11.36

Do institutionals & insiders believe in PEBO or ABCB?

60.7% of Peoples Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Peoples Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PEBO or ABCB?

Ameris Bancorp received 141 more outperform votes than Peoples Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.56% of users gave Ameris Bancorp an outperform vote while only 56.03% of users gave Peoples Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Peoples Bancorp	Outperform Votes 274 56.03%	Underperform Votes 215 43.97%
Ameris Bancorp	Outperform Votes 415 65.56%	Underperform Votes 218 34.44%

Which has more risk & volatility, PEBO or ABCB?

Peoples Bancorp has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate PEBO or ABCB?

Peoples Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $36.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.20%. Ameris Bancorp has a consensus target price of $71.43, indicating a potential upside of 16.42%. Given Peoples Bancorp's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Peoples Bancorp is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peoples Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Ameris Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86

Is PEBO or ABCB a better dividend stock?

Peoples Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Peoples Bancorp pays out 52.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameris Bancorp pays out 14.8% 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 has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Peoples Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Ameris Bancorp beats Peoples Bancorp on 17 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.