Reviewing QCR (NASDAQ:QCRH) & West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC)

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

Dividends

QCR pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. QCR pays out 3.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 23.6% 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.0% of QCR shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of QCR shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for QCR and West Coast Community Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
QCR	0	0	3	0	3.00
West Coast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

QCR presently has a consensus price target of $85.33, suggesting a potential upside of 26.10%. Given QCR’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe QCR is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Volatility and Risk

QCR has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares QCR and West Coast Community Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
QCR	$332.65 million	3.44	$113.85 million	$6.65	10.18
West Coast Community Bancorp	$123.69 million	3.50	$29.58 million	$3.39	12.06

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
QCR	19.06%	12.68%	1.35%
West Coast Community Bancorp	23.91%	N/A	N/A

Summary

QCR beats West Coast Community Bancorp on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About QCR

QCR Holdings, Inc., a multi-bank holding company, provides commercial and consumer banking, and trust and asset management services. The company’s deposit products include noninterest-bearing demand, interest-bearing demand, time, and brokered deposits. It also provides various commercial and retail lending/leasing, and investment services to corporations, partnerships, individuals, and government agencies. The company’s loan portfolio comprises loans to small and mid-sized businesses; business loans, including lines of credit for working capital and operational purposes; term loans for the acquisition of facilities, equipment, and other purposes; commercial and residential real estate loans; and installment and other consumer loans, such as home improvement, home equity, motor vehicle, and signature loans, as well as small personal credit lines. In addition, it engages in leasing of machinery and equipment to commercial and industrial businesses under direct financing lease contracts; and issuance of trust preferred securities. QCR Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Moline, Illinois.

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.