Head-To-Head Comparison: Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) versus CF Bankshares (NASDAQ:CFBK)

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

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Peoples Financial Services and CF Bankshares”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peoples Financial Services	$229.80 million	2.13	$8.50 million	$8.47	5.79
CF Bankshares	$123.56 million	1.29	$13.39 million	$2.49	10.03

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

Dividends

Peoples Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $2.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. CF Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Peoples Financial Services pays out 29.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CF Bankshares pays out 12.9% 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. Peoples Financial Services has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years and CF Bankshares has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Peoples Financial Services is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Peoples Financial Services and CF Bankshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peoples Financial Services	0	3	0	0	2.00
CF Bankshares	0	2	1	0	2.33

Peoples Financial Services presently has a consensus target price of $50.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.02%. CF Bankshares has a consensus target price of $29.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.07%. Given CF Bankshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe CF Bankshares is more favorable than Peoples Financial Services.

Volatility & Risk

Peoples Financial Services has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CF Bankshares has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

31.7% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.1% of CF Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Peoples Financial Services shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 21.0% of CF Bankshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peoples Financial Services	20.17%	18.32%	1.76%
CF Bankshares	12.78%	9.23%	0.77%

Summary

Peoples Financial Services beats CF Bankshares on 9 of the 17 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 CF Bankshares

CF Bankshares Inc. operates as the bank holding company for CFBank, National Association that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company accepts savings, retail and business checking accounts, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It offers single-family mortgage loans; commercial real estate and multi-family residential mortgage loans; commercial loans and equipment leases; residential real estate loans and treasury management depository services; retail banking services and products. In addition, the company offers consumer loans, such as home equity lines of credit, home improvement loans, and loans secured by deposits and purchased loans, as well as other loans. Further, it provides online internet banking, mobile banking, and remote deposits. The company was formerly known as Central Federal Corporation and changed its name to CF Bankshares Inc. in July 2020. CF Bankshares Inc. was founded in 1892 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.