Analyzing Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach (OTCMKTS:FMBL) & Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC)

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach (OTCMKTS:FMBL) and Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC) 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.

Profitability

This table compares Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach and Plumas Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach	12.08%	3.84%	0.46%
Plumas Bancorp	25.80%	15.30%	1.73%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach and Plumas Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach	0	0	0	0	0.00
Plumas Bancorp	0	0	3	0	3.00

Plumas Bancorp has a consensus price target of $55.50, indicating a potential upside of 20.47%. Given Plumas Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Plumas Bancorp is more favorable than Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

7.6% of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.7% of Plumas Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.8% of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.7% of Plumas Bancorp 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

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach has a beta of 0.3, indicating that its stock price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Plumas Bancorp has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach pays an annual dividend of $112.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Plumas Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach pays out 26.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Plumas Bancorp pays out 28.1% 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. Plumas Bancorp has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Plumas Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach and Plumas Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach	$459.33 million	2.14	$44.88 million	$428.48	19.13
Plumas Bancorp	$93.11 million	3.44	$28.62 million	$4.27	10.79

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach has higher revenue and earnings than Plumas Bancorp. Plumas Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Plumas Bancorp beats Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach provides various banking products and services to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in Los Angeles, Orange, and Santa Barbara Counties. It offers checking, savings, Christmas club savings, health savings, market rate savings, and money market accounts; demand and time deposits; certificates of deposit; and individual retirement account. The company also provides personal, home, commercial real estate, real estate and construction, and commercial business loans, as well as lines of credit; financing for residential loans comprising single-family and multifamily loans; and credit and debit cards. In addition, it offers account management, receivables and payables, and risk management services; commercial lending services; and faith-based and healthcare banking services, as well as online and mobile banking services. Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.

About Plumas Bancorp

Plumas Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for the Plumas Bank that provides various banking products and services for small and middle market businesses, and individuals in Northeastern California and Northwestern Nevada. The company accepts various deposits, such as checking, money market checking, business sweep, public funds sweep, savings, time deposit, and retirement accounts. Its loan portfolio comprises of term real estate, commercial, and industrial term loans; government-guaranteed and agricultural loans, as well as credit lines; consumer, automobile, and home equity loans; land development and construction loans; and small business administration loans. In addition, the company provides remote deposit, telephone and mobile banking, internet banking with bill-pay options, cashier's check, bank-by-mail, automated teller machine, night depository, safe deposit box, direct deposit, electronic funds transfer, and other customary banking services. Plumas Bancorp was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.