SFST vs. ABCB, FCBC, HOPE, IBCP, MBWM, OCFC, PPBI, STBA, WSBC, and BY
Should you be buying Southern First Bancshares stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southern First Bancshares include Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), First Community Bancshares (FCBC), Hope Bancorp (HOPE), Independent Bank (IBCP), Mercantile Bank (MBWM), OceanFirst Financial (OCFC), Pacific Premier Bancorp (PPBI), S&T Bancorp (STBA), WesBanco (WSBC), and Byline Bancorp (BY). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Southern First Bancshares vs. Its Competitors
Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) and Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.
91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.0% of Southern First Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Southern First Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Ameris Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $71.43, indicating a potential upside of 5.45%. Southern First Bancshares has a consensus target price of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.78%. Given Southern First Bancshares' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Southern First Bancshares is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.
Ameris Bancorp has a net margin of 21.46% compared to Southern First Bancshares' net margin of 8.50%. Ameris Bancorp's return on equity of 9.57% beat Southern First Bancshares' return on equity.
Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern First Bancshares has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 4 more articles in the media than Southern First Bancshares. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 0 mentions for Southern First Bancshares. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 0.47 beat Southern First Bancshares' score of 0.00 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Ameris Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Southern First Bancshares. Ameris Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern First Bancshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Ameris Bancorp beats Southern First Bancshares on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SFST and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
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.
Southern First Bancshares Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:SFST) was last updated on 7/5/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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