Reviewing West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) & Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Peoples Bancorp and West Coast Community Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peoples Bancorp	0	3	2	0	2.40
West Coast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

Peoples Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $36.90, indicating a potential upside of 15.31%. Given Peoples Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Peoples Bancorp is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

60.7% of Peoples Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Peoples Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Peoples Bancorp has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Peoples Bancorp and West Coast Community Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peoples Bancorp	$443.83 million	2.56	$117.21 million	$3.31	9.67
West Coast Community Bancorp	$123.69 million	3.52	$29.58 million	$3.39	12.16

Peoples Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than West Coast Community Bancorp. Peoples Bancorp 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 Peoples Bancorp and West Coast Community Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peoples Bancorp	18.90%	11.07%	1.31%
West Coast Community Bancorp	23.91%	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Peoples Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Peoples Bancorp pays out 48.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 22.4% 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.

Summary

Peoples Bancorp beats West Coast Community Bancorp on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp Inc. operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts. It also offers debit and automated teller machine (ATM) cards; safe deposit rental facilities; money orders and cashier’s checks; and telephone, mobile, and online banking services. In addition, the company provides various life, health, and property and casualty insurance products; third-party insurance administration; interactive teller machines; insurance premium financing; check deposit and alert notification; commercial and technology equipment leasing; fiduciary and trust; underwriting, origination, and servicing of equipment leases, and equipment financing agreements; and asset management and administration services, as well as employee benefit, retirement, and health care plan administration services. Further, it offers brokerage services through an unaffiliated registered broker-dealers; insurance premium finance lending and leasing; and credit cards to individuals and businesses, as well as provides merchant credit card transaction processing, and person-to-person payment processing services. Peoples Bancorp Inc. was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Marietta, Ohio.

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.