Comparing USCB Financial (NASDAQ:USCB) & Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM)

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
USCB Financial	17.04%	15.37%	1.22%
Dime Community Bancshares	15.15%	9.12%	0.83%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for USCB Financial and Dime Community Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
USCB Financial	0	2	2	1	2.80
Dime Community Bancshares	0	2	3	1	2.83

USCB Financial currently has a consensus price target of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.96%. Dime Community Bancshares has a consensus price target of $39.75, indicating a potential upside of 8.59%. Given USCB Financial’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe USCB Financial is more favorable than Dime Community Bancshares.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

61.3% of USCB Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.3% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 49.5% of USCB Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.4% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares USCB Financial and Dime Community Bancshares”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
USCB Financial	$159.60 million	2.10	$26.10 million	$1.43	12.83
Dime Community Bancshares	$473.00 million	3.41	$110.68 million	$2.66	13.76

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

Risk & Volatility

USCB Financial has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dime Community Bancshares has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Dividends

USCB Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Dime Community Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. USCB Financial pays out 35.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Dime Community Bancshares pays out 37.6% 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. USCB Financial has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Dime Community Bancshares has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Summary

Dime Community Bancshares beats USCB Financial on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About USCB Financial

USCB Financial Holdings, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for U.S. Century Bank that engages in the provision of various personal and business banking products and services in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, including commercial and consumer checking, money market deposit, savings, and time deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers loan products, such as small business administration loans, yacht financing, residential and commercial real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans; foreign bank loans; and secured and unsecured consumer loans comprising personal loans, overdrafts, and deposit account collateralized loans. The company also offers lockbox, treasury, commercial payments, cash management, and online banking services, as well as provides title insurance policies for real estate transactions. USCB Financial Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

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.