Contrasting Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CMTV) & Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB)

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) and Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CMTV) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Amerant Bancorp and Community Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amerant Bancorp	$676.04 million	1.32	$52.42 million	$1.41	16.04
Community Bancorp	$68.79 million	3.16	$16.97 million	$3.17	12.30

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

42.1% of Amerant Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 5.4% of Amerant Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.6% of Community Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Amerant Bancorp and Community Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amerant Bancorp	1	2	2	0	2.20
Community Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00

Amerant Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $23.67, suggesting a potential upside of 4.66%. Given Amerant Bancorp’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Amerant Bancorp is more favorable than Community Bancorp.

Dividends

Amerant Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Amerant Bancorp pays out 25.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Community Bancorp pays out 31.5% 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amerant Bancorp	8.83%	8.59%	0.79%
Community Bancorp	25.28%	16.25%	1.45%

Risk and Volatility

Amerant Bancorp has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About Amerant Bancorp

Amerant Bancorp Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Amerant Bank, N.A. that provides banking products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States and internationally. The company offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; and certificates of deposits. It also provides variable and fixed rate commercial real estate loans; loans secured by owner-occupied properties; loans to domestic and foreign individuals primarily secured by personal residence; working capital loans, asset-based lending, participations in shared national credits, purchased receivables, and small business administration loans; loans to financial institutions and acceptances; and consumer loans and overdrafts, such as automobile, personal, or loans secured by cash or securities and revolving credit card agreements. In addition, the company offers trust and estate planning products and services to high-net-worth customers, brokerage and investment advisory services in global capital markets, and wealth management and fiduciary services. Further, it provides debit and credit cards, night depositories, direct deposits, cashier’s checks, safe deposit boxes, letters of credit, and treasury management services, including wire transfer, remote deposit capture, and automated clearinghouse services; derivative instruments; and online and mobile banking, account balances, statements and other documents, online transfers and bill payment, and electronic delivery of customer statements services, as well as automated teller machines, and banking by mobile devices, telephone, and mail. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 24 banking centers comprising 17 in Florida and 7 in Texas. It also operates loan production offices in Tampa, Florida. The company was formerly known as Mercantil Bank Holding Corporation and changed its name to Amerant Bancorp Inc. in June 2019. Amerant Bancorp Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida.

About Community Bancorp

Community Bancorp. operates as the bank holding company for Community National Bank that provides a range of retail banking services to residents, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and municipalities. It provides various consumer banking products and services, including checking accounts, savings programs, ATMs, debit/credit cards, and night deposit facilities, as well as online, mobile, and telephone banking. The company’s business banking products and services comprise credit products for various business purposes, including financing for commercial business properties, equipment, inventories, and accounts receivable, as well as letters of credit; and business checking and other deposit accounts, cash management services, repurchase agreements, ACH and wire transfer services, and remote deposit capture. It offers commercial real estate lending products for commercial developers and investors, residential builders and developers, and community development entities, which include credit products to facilitate the purchase of land and/or build structures for business, for investors to develop residential or commercial properties, and for real estate secured financing of existing businesses, as well as financing to startups and other small businesses. The company’s residential real estate lending products include fixed-rate and adjustable rate residential mortgage and home equity loans; retail credit products include personal, automobile, and boat/recreational vehicle loans; and municipal and institutional banking products and services for state and local governments, schools, charities, membership, and not-for-profit associations comprise deposit accounts, tax-exempt loans, lines of credit, and term loans, as well as a collateralized secured deposit products. It operates through a main office in Derby; and eleven branch offices in northeastern and central Vermont. Community Bancorp. was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Derby, Vermont.