West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) and Chemung Financial (NASDAQ:CHMG) Financial Comparison

West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) and Chemung Financial (NASDAQ:CHMG) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.5% of Chemung Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 12.0% of Chemung Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Chemung Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 16.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Chemung Financial pays out 23.8% 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 Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for West Coast Community Bancorp and Chemung Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
West Coast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	N/A
Chemung Financial	0	1	0	0	2.00

Chemung Financial has a consensus target price of $49.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.81%. Given Chemung Financial’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Chemung Financial is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Risk & Volatility

West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chemung Financial has a beta of 0.15, suggesting that its stock price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares West Coast Community Bancorp and Chemung Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
West Coast Community Bancorp	$98.49 million	4.08	$35.15 million	$4.08	9.38
Chemung Financial	$94.12 million	2.38	$25.00 million	$5.22	9.02

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

Profitability

This table compares West Coast Community Bancorp and Chemung Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
West Coast Community Bancorp	32.38%	N/A	N/A
Chemung Financial	16.02%	11.33%	0.79%

About West Coast Community Bancorp

West Coast Community Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Santa Cruz County Bank that provides a range of commercial and personal banking services to residents and businesses in the United States. It offers checking, savings, money market, certificate of deposits, and health savings accounts; and individual retirement account and retirement plans. The company also provides lending products, including real estate commercial property, construction, asset-based, lines of credit, SBA loans, 504 loan program, business and industry, farm services agency, agricultural, and wine industry lending. In addition, it provides debit and credit cards, merchant services, online and mobile banking, remote deposit services, wire and ACH manager, treasury management, payment, and cash management services. West Coast Community Bancorp was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California.

About Chemung Financial

Chemung Financial Corporation operates as a bank holding company for Chemung Canal Trust Company that provides a range of banking, financing, fiduciary, and other financial services. The company provides demand, savings, and time deposits; non-interest and interest-bearing checking accounts; and insured money market accounts. It also offers commercial and agricultural loans comprising loans to small to mid-sized businesses; commercial and residential mortgage loans; and consumer loans, including home equity lines of credit and home equity term loans. In addition, the company provides interest rate swaps, letters of credit, employee benefit plans, insurance products, mutual fund, brokerage, and tax preparation services. Further, it offers guardian, custodian, trustee, investment, pension, estate planning, and employee benefit administrative services, as well as acts as an agent for pension, profit-sharing, and other employee benefit trusts. Chemung Financial Corporation was founded in 1833 and is headquartered in Elmira, New York.