Contrasting Mid Penn Bancorp (NASDAQ:MPB) & Southern States Bancshares (NASDAQ:SSBK)

Southern States Bancshares (NASDAQ:SSBK) and Mid Penn Bancorp (NASDAQ:MPB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Southern States Bancshares and Mid Penn Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern States Bancshares	19.68%	15.04%	1.38%
Mid Penn Bancorp	15.99%	8.43%	0.87%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Southern States Bancshares and Mid Penn Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern States Bancshares	0	0	2	0	3.00
Mid Penn Bancorp	0	0	2	0	3.00

Southern States Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $35.50, suggesting a potential upside of 9.70%. Mid Penn Bancorp has a consensus target price of $36.00, suggesting a potential upside of 38.36%. Given Mid Penn Bancorp’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Mid Penn Bancorp is more favorable than Southern States Bancshares.

Dividends

Southern States Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Mid Penn Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Southern States Bancshares pays out 9.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mid Penn Bancorp pays out 27.6% 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 and Risk

Southern States Bancshares has a beta of 0.34, indicating that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mid Penn Bancorp has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

58.7% of Southern States Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.1% of Mid Penn Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 14.8% of Southern States Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.7% of Mid Penn Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Southern States Bancshares and Mid Penn Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern States Bancshares	$99.10 million	3.24	$34.87 million	$3.67	8.82
Mid Penn Bancorp	$176.80 million	2.85	$49.44 million	$2.90	8.97

Mid Penn Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Southern States Bancshares. Southern States Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mid Penn Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Southern States Bancshares beats Mid Penn Bancorp on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Southern States Bancshares

Southern States Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Southern States Bank that provides community banking services to businesses and individuals. The company provides various deposit products, such as savings, money market, and noninterest-bearing demand accounts; certificates of deposit; and time deposits. It offers real estate loan products, including loans for real estate construction and development, residential mortgages, and commercial real estate mortgage loans; commercial and industrial loans; and direct consumer installment loans, overdrafts, and other revolving credit loans. In addition, it offers online and mobile banking, and ATM services. Southern States Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Anniston, Alabama.

About Mid Penn Bancorp

Mid Penn Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Mid Penn Bank that provides commercial banking services to individuals, partnerships, non-profit organizations, and corporations. The company offers various time and demand deposit products, including checking accounts, savings accounts, clubs, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. It also provides a range of loan products comprising mortgage and home equity loans, secured and unsecured commercial and consumer loans, lines of credit, construction financing, farm loans, community development loans, loans to non-profit entities, and local government loans. In addition, the company offers trust, retail investment, wealth management, and insurance services; and provides online banking, telephone banking, cash management, and automated teller services, as well as safe deposit boxes. The company was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.