Contrasting West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) & Southside Bancshares (NASDAQ:SBSI)

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

Volatility & Risk

West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southside Bancshares has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares West Coast Community Bancorp and Southside Bancshares”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
West Coast Community Bancorp	$123.69 million	3.45	$29.58 million	$3.39	11.87
Southside Bancshares	$260.02 million	3.58	$88.49 million	$2.82	10.94

Southside Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than West Coast Community Bancorp. Southside Bancshares 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
West Coast Community Bancorp	23.91%	N/A	N/A
Southside Bancshares	19.40%	11.10%	1.06%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.7% of Southside Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.0% of Southside Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Southside Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 23.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southside Bancshares pays out 51.1% 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. Southside Bancshares has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Southside Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for West Coast Community Bancorp and Southside Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
West Coast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Southside Bancshares	0	3	0	0	2.00

Southside Bancshares has a consensus target price of $35.00, indicating a potential upside of 13.48%. Given Southside Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Southside Bancshares is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Summary

Southside Bancshares beats West Coast Community Bancorp on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Southside Bancshares

Southside Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Southside Bank that provides a range of financial services to individuals, businesses, municipal entities, and nonprofit organizations. Its deposit products include savings, money market, and interest and noninterest bearing checking accounts, as well as certificates of deposits. The company’s loan portfolio comprises consumer loans that include 1-4 family residential loans, home equity loans, home improvement loans, automobile loans, and other consumer related loans; commercial loans, such as short-term working capital loans for inventory and accounts receivable, short and medium-term loans for equipment or other business capital expansion, commercial real estate loans, and municipal loans; and construction loans for 1-4 family residential and commercial real estate. It also offers wealth management and trust services consisting of investment management, administration of irrevocable, revocable, and testamentary trusts, estate administration, and custodian services for individuals, partnerships, and corporations; safe deposit services; and brokerage services. In addition, the company provides retirement and employee benefit accounts, including plans and profit sharing plans; and telephone, internet, and mobile banking services. The company offers various banking services through branches, drive-thru facilities, automated teller machines, and interactive teller machines. Southside Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Tyler, Texas.