Head-To-Head Contrast: Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) versus Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM)

Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) and Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Pinnacle Financial Partners and Dime Community Bancshares’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pinnacle Financial Partners	$1.38 billion	4.45	$562.15 million	$7.18	11.11
Dime Community Bancshares	$352.78 million	2.02	$96.09 million	$2.29	8.01

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Pinnacle Financial Partners and Dime Community Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pinnacle Financial Partners	0	3	4	0	2.57
Dime Community Bancshares	0	0	3	0	3.00

Pinnacle Financial Partners presently has a consensus target price of $92.57, indicating a potential upside of 16.02%. Dime Community Bancshares has a consensus target price of $25.88, indicating a potential upside of 41.01%. Given Dime Community Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Dime Community Bancshares is more favorable than Pinnacle Financial Partners.

Risk and Volatility

Pinnacle Financial Partners has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dime Community Bancshares has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Pinnacle Financial Partners and Dime Community Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pinnacle Financial Partners	20.17%	9.78%	1.18%
Dime Community Bancshares	14.89%	9.85%	0.78%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.4% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.3% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.3% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Pinnacle Financial Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Dime Community Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Pinnacle Financial Partners pays out 12.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Dime Community Bancshares pays out 43.7% 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. Dime Community Bancshares has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Dime Community Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Pinnacle Financial Partners beats Dime Community Bancshares on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pinnacle Financial Partners

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as the bank holding company for Pinnacle Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and professional entities in the United States. The company accepts various deposits, including savings, noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing checking, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and provides treasury management services, which includes online wire origination, enhanced ACH origination services, positive pay, zero balance and sweep accounts, automated bill pay services, electronic receivables processing, lockbox processing, and merchant card acceptance services. It offers equipment and working capital loans; commercial real estate loans comprising investment properties and business loans; secured and unsecured loans, such as installment and term, lines of credit, and residential first mortgage, as well as home equity loans and home equity lines of credit; and credit cards for consumers and businesses. The company also provides investment products; brokerage and investment advisory programs; and fiduciary and investment services, such as personal trust, investment management, estate administration, endowments, foundations, individual retirement accounts, escrow services, and custody. In addition, it offers insurance agency services primarily in the property and casualty area; merger and acquisition advisory services; and private debt, equity and mezzanine, and other middle-market advisory services. Further, the company provides telephone and online banking, mobile banking, debit and credit cards, direct deposit and remote deposit capture, mobile deposit option, automated teller machine, and cash management services. Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Dime Community Bancshares

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. operates as the holding company for Dime Community Bank that engages in the provision of various commercial banking and financial services. The company accepts time, savings, and demand deposits from the businesses, consumers, and local municipalities. It also offers commercial real estate loans; multi-family mortgage loans; residential mortgage loans; letters of credit; secured and unsecured commercial and consumer loans; lines of credit; home equity loans; and construction and land loans. In addition, the company invests in Federal Home Loan Bank, Federal National Mortgage Association, Government National Mortgage Association, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation mortgage-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, and other asset backed securities; U.S. Treasury securities; New York state and local municipal obligations; U.S. government-sponsored enterprise securities; and corporate bonds. Further, it offers certificate of deposit account registry services and insured cash sweep programs; federal deposit insurance corporation insurance; merchant credit and debit card processing, automated teller machines, cash management services, lockbox processing, online banking services, remote deposit capture, safe deposit boxes, and individual retirement accounts; investment products and services through a third-party broker dealer; and title insurance broker services for small and medium sized businesses, and municipal and consumer relationships. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York.