Analyzing Eagle Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSI) and Greene County Bancorp (NASDAQ:GCBC)

Greene County Bancorp (NASDAQ:GCBC) and Eagle Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

13.4% of Greene County Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.3% of Eagle Financial Services shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of Greene County Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Eagle Financial Services shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Greene County Bancorp has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eagle Financial Services has a beta of 0.21, indicating that its stock price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Greene County Bancorp and Eagle Financial Services, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Greene County Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
Eagle Financial Services	0	3	2	1	2.67

Eagle Financial Services has a consensus price target of $43.75, indicating a potential downside of 4.29%. Given Eagle Financial Services’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eagle Financial Services is more favorable than Greene County Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Greene County Bancorp and Eagle Financial Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Greene County Bancorp	30.24%	16.67%	1.41%
Eagle Financial Services	14.55%	8.02%	0.82%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Greene County Bancorp and Eagle Financial Services”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Greene County Bancorp	$145.79 million	4.22	$41.02 million	$2.62	13.79
Eagle Financial Services	$105.89 million	2.34	$8.21 million	$3.30	13.85

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

Dividends

Greene County Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Eagle Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Greene County Bancorp pays out 16.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eagle Financial Services 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. Greene County Bancorp has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and Eagle Financial Services has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Eagle Financial Services is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Greene County Bancorp beats Eagle Financial Services on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Greene County Bancorp

Greene County Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for The Bank of Greene County that provides various financial services in the United States. The company's deposit products include savings, NOW accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, non-interest bearing checking accounts, and individual retirement accounts. Its loan portfolio consists of residential, construction and land, and multifamily loans; commercial real estate mortgage loans; consumer loans, such as loans on new and used automobiles, personal loans, and home equity loans, as well as other consumer installment loans, including passbook loans, unsecured home improvement loans, recreational vehicle loans, and deposit account overdrafts; and commercial loans. The company was founded in 1889 and is based in Catskill, New York. Greene County Bancorp, Inc. is a subsidiary of Greene County Bancorp, MHC.

About Eagle Financial Services

Eagle Financial Services, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Bank of Clarke County that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services in the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia. The company’s deposit products include checking, NOW, money market, and regular savings accounts; and demand and time deposits. Its loan portfolio comprises one-to-four-family residential real estate, commercial real estate, construction and land development, and commercial and industrial loans, as well as secured and unsecured consumer loans, which include personal installment loans, personal lines of credit, automobile loans, and credit card loans. The company also offers personal and retirement plan services; investment services comprising tax-deferred annuities, IRAs and rollovers, mutual funds, retirement plans, college savings plans, life insurance, long term care insurance, fixed income investing, brokerage CDs, and full service or discount brokerage services; non-deposit investment products; and title insurance products. In addition, it provides ATM and debit cards; and telephone, internet, and mobile banking services, as well as other commercial deposit account services, such as ACH origination and remote deposit capture services. The company operates through twelve full-service branches, two loan production offices, one wealth management office, and one drive-through only facility, as well as 13 ATM locations in the Virginia communities of Berryville, Winchester, Boyce, Stephens City, Purcellville, Warrenton, Leesburg, Ashburn, and Fairfax. Eagle Financial Services, Inc. was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Berryville, Virginia.