Head to Head Comparison: Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) and Oak Ridge Financial Services (OTCMKTS:BKOR)

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) and Oak Ridge Financial Services (OTCMKTS:BKOR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Peoples Financial Services and Oak Ridge Financial Services”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peoples Financial Services	$113.63 million	4.72	$27.38 million	$1.03	52.14
Oak Ridge Financial Services	$41.04 million	1.42	$5.67 million	$2.06	10.24

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

Risk & Volatility

Peoples Financial Services has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oak Ridge Financial Services has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

31.7% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 4.2% of Oak Ridge Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.6% of Oak Ridge Financial Services shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Peoples Financial Services and Oak Ridge Financial Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peoples Financial Services	3.00%	7.73%	0.71%
Oak Ridge Financial Services	13.82%	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Peoples Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $2.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Oak Ridge Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Peoples Financial Services pays out 239.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Oak Ridge Financial Services pays out 23.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Peoples Financial Services and Oak Ridge Financial Services, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peoples Financial Services	0	1	1	0	2.50
Oak Ridge Financial Services	0	0	0	0	0.00

Peoples Financial Services currently has a consensus price target of $50.00, indicating a potential downside of 6.89%. Given Peoples Financial Services’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Peoples Financial Services is more favorable than Oak Ridge Financial Services.

Summary

Peoples Financial Services beats Oak Ridge Financial Services on 12 of the 16 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 Oak Ridge Financial Services

Oak Ridge Financial Services, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Bank of Oak Ridge that provides various banking products and services for individuals and businesses. It offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; overdrafts; auto, home equity, mortgage, business term, and business SBA loans; business lines of credit; credit cards; and online and mobile banking products and services. The company also provides health savings accounts, identity theft protection, wealth management, cash management, and remote deposit capture services; and auto, home, small business, renters, life, boat and watercraft, classic car, motorcycle, flood, pet, and umbrella insurance products. It operates through a network of branches in Oak Ridge, Greensboro, and Summerfield, North Carolina. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in Oak Ridge, North Carolina.