Head-To-Head Review: Camden National (NASDAQ:CAC) & Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS)

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) and Camden National (NASDAQ:CAC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Dividends

Peoples Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $2.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Camden National pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Peoples Financial Services pays out 29.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Camden National pays out 47.9% 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. Peoples Financial Services has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Peoples Financial Services is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Peoples Financial Services and Camden National, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peoples Financial Services	0	3	0	0	2.00
Camden National	0	4	2	0	2.33

Peoples Financial Services currently has a consensus price target of $50.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.07%. Camden National has a consensus price target of $46.75, indicating a potential upside of 4.19%. Given Camden National’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Camden National is more favorable than Peoples Financial Services.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

31.7% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.4% of Camden National shares are held by institutional investors. 8.0% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Camden National shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Peoples Financial Services and Camden National’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peoples Financial Services	20.17%	18.32%	1.76%
Camden National	16.24%	10.76%	1.01%

Risk & Volatility

Peoples Financial Services has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Camden National has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Peoples Financial Services and Camden National”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peoples Financial Services	$229.80 million	2.17	$8.50 million	$8.47	5.90
Camden National	$294.10 million	2.58	$53.00 million	$3.51	12.78

Camden National has higher revenue and earnings than Peoples Financial Services. Peoples Financial Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Camden National, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Peoples Financial Services beats Camden National on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Peoples Financial Services

Peoples Financial Services Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company that provides various commercial and retail banking services. The company accepts money market, negotiable order of withdrawal, savings, individual retirement, demand deposit, and certificates of deposit accounts. It also provides residential real estate, automobile, manufactured housing, personal, and home equity loans; and commercial real estate, working capital, construction, small business administration, and agricultural loans, as well as loans for equipment and other commercial needs, and mineral rights. In addition, the company offers fiduciary and investment services; investment management, IRA trustee, estate administration, living and life insurance trust, trustee under will, guardianship, custodial/IRA custodial, and corporate trust services, as well as pension and profit-sharing plans. Further, it provides wealth management products and services comprising investment portfolio management, estate and business succession planning, annuities, insurance, retirement plan, and tax planning, as well as education funding strategies; and securities, brokerage, and investor services. Additionally, the company offers small business checking and merchant money market accounts, online and telephone banking, business credit cards, merchant line of credit, and financial checkup services; and remote deposit capture, automatic clearing house transaction, cash management, automated teller machine, point of sale transaction, safe deposit box, night depository, direct deposit, and official check services. It serves business, non-profit, governmental, municipal agency, and professional customers, as well as retail customers. Peoples Financial Services Corp. was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

About Camden National

Camden National Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Camden National Bank that provides various commercial and consumer banking products and services for consumer, institutional, municipal, non-profit, and commercial customers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The company accepts checking, savings, time, and brokered deposits, as well as deposits with the certificate of deposit account registry system. Its loan products include non-owner-occupied commercial estate loans, owner-occupied commercial real estate loans, unsecured fully-guaranteed commercial loans backed by the small business administration, loans secured by one-to four-family properties, and consumer and home equity loans. The company also provides brokerage and insurance services through its financial offerings consisting of college, retirement, estate planning, mutual funds, strategic asset management accounts, and variable and fixed annuities. Further, it offers a range of fiduciary and asset management, wealth management, investment management, financial planning, and trustee services. Camden National Corporation was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Camden, Maine.