WABC vs. SASR, HOPE, NWBI, CHCO, TRMK, FNB, FFIN, UBSI, COLB, and GBCI
Should you be buying Westamerica Bancorporation stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Westamerica Bancorporation include Sandy Spring Bancorp (SASR), Hope Bancorp (HOPE), Northwest Bancshares (NWBI), City (CHCO), Trustmark (TRMK), F.N.B. (FNB), First Financial Bankshares (FFIN), United Bankshares (UBSI), Columbia Banking System (COLB), and Glacier Bancorp (GBCI). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Westamerica Bancorporation (NASDAQ:WABC) and Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.
Westamerica Bancorporation has a net margin of 47.12% compared to Sandy Spring Bancorp's net margin of 12.31%. Westamerica Bancorporation's return on equity of 20.17% beat Sandy Spring Bancorp's return on equity.
Westamerica Bancorporation presently has a consensus price target of $57.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.05%. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a consensus price target of $27.00, suggesting a potential downside of 15.99%. Given Westamerica Bancorporation's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Westamerica Bancorporation is more favorable than Sandy Spring Bancorp.
In the previous week, Sandy Spring Bancorp had 5 more articles in the media than Westamerica Bancorporation. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Sandy Spring Bancorp and 2 mentions for Westamerica Bancorporation. Sandy Spring Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.52 beat Westamerica Bancorporation's score of 0.44 indicating that Sandy Spring Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Westamerica Bancorporation has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sandy Spring Bancorp has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Sandy Spring Bancorp received 52 more outperform votes than Westamerica Bancorporation when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.20% of users gave Sandy Spring Bancorp an outperform vote while only 49.58% of users gave Westamerica Bancorporation an outperform vote.
81.9% of Westamerica Bancorporation shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.9% of Sandy Spring Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.4% of Westamerica Bancorporation shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Sandy Spring Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Westamerica Bancorporation has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sandy Spring Bancorp. Westamerica Bancorporation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sandy Spring Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Westamerica Bancorporation pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Sandy Spring Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Westamerica Bancorporation pays out 29.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sandy Spring Bancorp pays out 66.7% 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. Westamerica Bancorporation has increased its dividend for 32 consecutive years.
Summary
Westamerica Bancorporation beats Sandy Spring Bancorp on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WABC 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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