Head to Head Survey: Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) and Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB)

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) and Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Shore Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Metropolitan Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Shore Bancshares pays out 29.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Metropolitan Bank pays out 9.7% 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Shore Bancshares and Metropolitan Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shore Bancshares	0	0	2	0	3.00
Metropolitan Bank	0	0	3	0	3.00

Shore Bancshares currently has a consensus price target of $20.00, suggesting a potential upside of 31.23%. Metropolitan Bank has a consensus price target of $82.67, suggesting a potential upside of 19.98%. Given Shore Bancshares’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Shore Bancshares is more favorable than Metropolitan Bank.

Profitability

This table compares Shore Bancshares and Metropolitan Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shore Bancshares	15.98%	11.10%	0.99%
Metropolitan Bank	13.68%	10.67%	1.04%

Volatility and Risk

Shore Bancshares has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Metropolitan Bank has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Shore Bancshares and Metropolitan Bank”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shore Bancshares	$326.48 million	1.56	$43.89 million	$1.61	9.47
Metropolitan Bank	$492.21 million	1.49	$66.69 million	$6.17	11.17

Metropolitan Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Shore Bancshares. Shore Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Metropolitan Bank, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

59.8% of Shore Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.8% of Metropolitan Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.7% of Shore Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.1% of Metropolitan Bank shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Metropolitan Bank beats Shore Bancshares on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shore Bancshares

Shore Bancshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for the Shore United Bank, N.A. that provides various commercial and consumer banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations. It offers checking, savings, overnight investment sweep, and money market accounts; and regular and IRA certificates of deposit, as well as CDARS programs and cash management services. The company also provides commercial loans, such as secured and unsecured loans, working capital loans, lines of credit, term loans, accounts receivable financing, real estate acquisition and development loans, construction loans, and letters of credit; residential real estate construction loans; residential mortgage loans; and loans to consumers, including home equity, automobile, installment, home improvement, and personal lines of credit, as well as other consumer financing products. In addition, it offers trust, asset management, and financial planning services; treasury management services, such as merchant card processing, remote deposit capture, and ACH origination, as well as telephone, mobile, and Internet banking services; safe deposit boxes; debit and credit cards; and automatic teller machine services. Shore Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Easton, Maryland.

About Metropolitan Bank

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Metropolitan Commercial Bank that provides a range of business, commercial, and retail banking products and services to small businesses, middle-market enterprises, public entities, and individuals in the New York metropolitan area. The company offers checking, savings, term deposit, money market, demand deposit, and other interest-bearing transaction accounts. It also provides lending products, including commercial real estate, multi-family, construction, and one-to four-family real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans; consumer loans; acquisition and renovation loans; loans to refinance or return borrower equity; loans on owner-occupied properties; working capital lines of credit; trade finance and letters of credit; and term loans. In addition, the company offers cash management services, as well as online and mobile banking, ACH, remote deposit capture, and debit cards. The company was formerly known as Metbank Holding Corp. and changed its name to Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. in January 2007. Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in New York, New York.