Financial Contrast: West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) vs. Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO)

West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) and Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares West Coast Community Bancorp and Peoples Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
West Coast Community Bancorp	$123.69 million	3.50	$29.58 million	$3.39	12.09
Peoples Bancorp	$443.83 million	2.57	$117.21 million	$3.31	9.69

Peoples Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than West Coast Community Bancorp. Peoples Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than West Coast Community Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for West Coast Community Bancorp and Peoples Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
West Coast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Peoples Bancorp	0	3	2	0	2.40

Peoples Bancorp has a consensus target price of $36.90, indicating a potential upside of 15.10%. Given Peoples Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Peoples Bancorp is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.7% of Peoples Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Peoples Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares West Coast Community Bancorp and Peoples Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
West Coast Community Bancorp	23.91%	N/A	N/A
Peoples Bancorp	18.90%	11.07%	1.31%

Dividends

West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Peoples Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 22.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Peoples Bancorp pays out 48.3% 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.

Volatility & Risk

West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peoples Bancorp has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Peoples Bancorp beats West Coast Community Bancorp on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About West Coast Community Bancorp

West Coast Community Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Santa Cruz County Bank that provides a range of commercial and personal banking services to residents and businesses in the United States. It offers checking, savings, money market, certificate of deposits, and health savings accounts; and individual retirement account and retirement plans. The company also provides lending products, including real estate commercial property, construction, asset-based, lines of credit, SBA loans, 504 loan program, business and industry, farm services agency, agricultural, and wine industry lending. In addition, it provides debit and credit cards, merchant services, online and mobile banking, remote deposit services, wire and ACH manager, treasury management, payment, and cash management services. West Coast Community Bancorp was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp Inc. operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts. It also offers debit and automated teller machine (ATM) cards; safe deposit rental facilities; money orders and cashier’s checks; and telephone, mobile, and online banking services. In addition, the company provides various life, health, and property and casualty insurance products; third-party insurance administration; interactive teller machines; insurance premium financing; check deposit and alert notification; commercial and technology equipment leasing; fiduciary and trust; underwriting, origination, and servicing of equipment leases, and equipment financing agreements; and asset management and administration services, as well as employee benefit, retirement, and health care plan administration services. Further, it offers brokerage services through an unaffiliated registered broker-dealers; insurance premium finance lending and leasing; and credit cards to individuals and businesses, as well as provides merchant credit card transaction processing, and person-to-person payment processing services. Peoples Bancorp Inc. was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Marietta, Ohio.