Southern First Bancshares (SFST) Competitors

LendingClub (NYSE:LC) and Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, media sentiment and valuation.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, LC or SFST?

LendingClub has higher revenue and earnings than Southern First Bancshares. Southern First Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LendingClub, 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
LendingClub	$824.03M	1.39	$51.33M	$0.44	22.80
Southern First Bancshares	$98.52M	3.03	$15.53M	$2.26	16.15

Do analysts rate LC or SFST?

LendingClub currently has a consensus price target of $15.75, indicating a potential upside of 57.03%. Given LendingClub's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe LendingClub is more favorable than Southern First Bancshares.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LendingClub	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.88
Southern First Bancshares	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of LC or SFST?

74.1% of LendingClub shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.0% of Southern First Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.2% of LendingClub shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Southern First Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LC or SFST?

LendingClub received 386 more outperform votes than Southern First Bancshares when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.06% of users gave LendingClub an outperform vote while only 52.79% of users gave Southern First Bancshares an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
LendingClub	Outperform Votes 585 61.06%	Underperform Votes 373 38.94%
Southern First Bancshares	Outperform Votes 199 52.79%	Underperform Votes 178 47.21%

Is LC or SFST more profitable?

Southern First Bancshares has a net margin of 7.28% compared to LendingClub's net margin of 6.52%. Southern First Bancshares' return on equity of 4.85% beat LendingClub's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LendingClub	6.52%	4.16%	0.54%
Southern First Bancshares	7.28%	4.85%	0.38%

Does the media favor LC or SFST?

In the previous week, LendingClub had 8 more articles in the media than Southern First Bancshares. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for LendingClub and 3 mentions for Southern First Bancshares. Southern First Bancshares' average media sentiment score of 1.55 beat LendingClub's score of 0.87 indicating that Southern First Bancshares is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
LendingClub	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Southern First Bancshares	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, LC or SFST?

LendingClub has a beta of 2.35, suggesting that its share price is 135% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern First Bancshares has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

LendingClub beats Southern First Bancshares on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.