First United (NASDAQ:FUNC) versus Shore Community Bank (OTCMKTS:SHRC) Critical Analysis

First United (NASDAQ:FUNC – Get Rating) and Shore Community Bank (OTCMKTS:SHRC – Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for First United and Shore Community Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First United	0	0	1	0	3.00
Shore Community Bank	0	0	0	0	N/A

First United currently has a consensus price target of $25.00, indicating a potential upside of 29.53%. Given First United’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe First United is more favorable than Shore Community Bank.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares First United and Shore Community Bank’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First United	$78.18 million	1.64	$19.77 million	$3.86	5.00
Shore Community Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

First United has higher revenue and earnings than Shore Community Bank.

Profitability

This table compares First United and Shore Community Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First United	32.12%	18.65%	1.44%
Shore Community Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

First United pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Shore Community Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. First United pays out 18.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First United has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. First United is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

31.6% of First United shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of First United shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

First United beats Shore Community Bank on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About First United

(Get Rating)

First United Corp. is a bank holding company, which engages in community banking services. It offers checking, savings, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit, business loans, personal loans, mortgage loans, lines of credit, and consumer-oriented retirement accounts including individual retirement accounts, and employee benefit accounts through its subsidiary. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Oakland, MD.

About Shore Community Bank

(Get Rating)

Shore Community Bank, a state chartered bank, provides banking products and services to businesses and individuals in Ocean County, New Jersey. The company's deposit products include checking accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, money market accounts, visa/mastercard merchant deposit accounts, and payroll/direct deposit accounts. Its loan portfolio comprises personal, home equity, term, and demand loans; lines of credit; letters of credit; commercial mortgages; and construction lending. The company also offers direct deposit and electronic transfer, wire transfer, ACH origination, night depository, tenant rent security, signature guarantee, remote deposit, notary, and automated asset management services; safe deposit boxes, escrow accounts, and debit cards, as well as online and telephone banking services. As of April 28, 2016, it operated five banking offices located in Toms River, Jackson, and Manahawkin, New Jersey. Shore Community Bank was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Toms River, New Jersey.