Analyzing ACNB (NASDAQ:ACNB) and West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC)

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

Profitability

This table compares ACNB and West Coast Community Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ACNB	24.09%	10.91%	1.31%
West Coast Community Bancorp	23.91%	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for ACNB and West Coast Community Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

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

ACNB presently has a consensus target price of $49.33, indicating a potential upside of 19.60%. Given ACNB’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe ACNB is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ACNB 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
ACNB	$108.34 million	3.25	$31.85 million	$3.73	11.06
West Coast Community Bancorp	$123.69 million	3.40	$29.58 million	$3.39	11.72

ACNB has higher earnings, but lower revenue than West Coast Community Bancorp. ACNB 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.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

32.3% of ACNB shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.6% of ACNB 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.

Dividends

ACNB pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. ACNB pays out 34.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 22.4% 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.

Volatility and Risk

ACNB has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ACNB beats West Coast Community Bancorp on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ACNB

ACNB Corporation, a financial holding company, offers banking, insurance, and financial services to individual, business, and government customers in the United States. The company provides checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits and debit cards. It also offers commercial lending products, such as commercial mortgages, real estate development and construction loans, accounts receivable and inventory financing, and agricultural and governmental loans; consumer lending products, including home equity loans and lines of credit, automobile and recreational vehicle loans, manufactured housing loans, and personal lines of credit; and mortgage lending programs include personal residential mortgages, and residential construction and investment mortgage loans. In addition, the company provides other services that are related to testamentary trusts, life insurance trusts, charitable remainder trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney, custodial accounts, and investment management and advisory accounts; and retail brokerage services. Further, it acts as a trustee to invest in, protect, manage, and distribute financial assets. Additionally, the company offers property and casualty, health, life, and disability insurance products to commercial and personal clients; and online, telephone, and mobile banking, as well as automated teller machine services. ACNB Corporation was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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.