Head-To-Head Review: Partners Bancorp (NASDAQ:PTRS) & Republic Bancorp (NASDAQ:RBCAA)

Republic Bancorp (NASDAQ:RBCAA) and Partners Bancorp (NASDAQ:PTRS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Republic Bancorp and Partners Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Republic Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
Partners Bancorp	0	0	0	0	N/A

Republic Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $50.50, suggesting a potential upside of 14.00%. Given Republic Bancorp’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Republic Bancorp is more favorable than Partners Bancorp.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

23.7% of Republic Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.6% of Partners Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 55.5% of Republic Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 45.0% of Partners Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Republic Bancorp and Partners Bancorp’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Republic Bancorp	$333.99 million	2.59	$91.11 million	$4.42	10.02
Partners Bancorp	$67.86 million	2.05	$13.61 million	$0.86	9.01

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

Risk & Volatility

Republic Bancorp has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Partners Bancorp has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Republic Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Partners Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Republic Bancorp pays out 33.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Partners Bancorp pays out 18.6% 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. Republic Bancorp has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Partners Bancorp has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Republic Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Republic Bancorp and Partners Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Republic Bancorp	23.14%	10.34%	1.48%
Partners Bancorp	20.27%	11.05%	0.98%

Summary

Republic Bancorp beats Partners Bancorp on 14 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Republic Bancorp

Republic Bancorp, Inc., a financial holding company, provides various banking products and services in the United States. It operates in five segments: Traditional Banking, Warehouse, Mortgage Banking, Tax Refund Solutions, and Republic Credit Solutions. The company accepts demand, money market accounts, savings, individual retirement accounts, time, brokered, and other certificates of deposit. Its loan products include residential real estate, commercial real estate, construction and land development, home equity, secured and unsecured personal, and aircraft loans. The company also offers credit cards; title insurance and other financial products and services; and private banking, lockbox processing, remote deposit capture, business online banking, account reconciliation, automated clearing house processing, and internet and mobile banking services. In addition, it provides short-term and revolving credit facilities to mortgage bankers; warehouse lending; tax refund solutions, which facilitate the receipt and payment of federal and state tax refund products through third-party tax preparers and tax-preparation software providers; and general purpose reloadable prepaid cards, payroll debit cards, and limited-purpose demand deposit accounts through third party service providers. Further, the company offers consumer credit products; and property and casualty insurance products, as well as checking and saving accounts, commercial accounts, marine lending, equipment leasing, employee services, and merchant solutions. Republic Bancorp, Inc. was incorporated in 1974 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

About Partners Bancorp

Partners Bancorp operates as the holding company for the Bank of Delmarva that provides financial services to individual and corporate customers in the United States. It offers business and personal checking, money market, NOW, IRA, savings, cash management, and time deposit accounts, as well as remote deposit capture and mobile deposit services. The company also provides commercial real estate, small business administration, term, purchase and refinance mortgage, bridge, equipment, home equity, agriculture, car, unsecured consumer, construction/permanent mortgage, and lot loans, as well as mobile home, boat, RV, and motorcycle loans; lines of credit; and business credit cards. In addition, it offers online bill payment, automated teller machine/debit card, merchant, transfer, cash advance and management, sweep, cash concentration, payroll direct deposit, and ACH origination services, as well as phone, mobile, and internet banking services. The company was formerly known as Delmar Bancorp and changed its name to Partners Bancorp in August 2020. Partners Bancorp was founded in 1896 and is based in Salisbury, Maryland.