Reviewing Chemung Financial (NASDAQ:CHMG) & Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF)

Chemung Financial (NASDAQ:CHMG) and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Chemung Financial and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chemung Financial	12.77%	12.45%	1.13%
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	14.42%	8.23%	1.11%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

47.5% of Chemung Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.8% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are held by institutional investors. 12.7% of Chemung Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are held by company 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 current ratings and price targets for Chemung Financial and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chemung Financial	0	2	1	0	2.33
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	0	3	2	0	2.40

Chemung Financial presently has a consensus target price of $64.00, suggesting a potential downside of 13.98%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.49%. Given Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida is more favorable than Chemung Financial.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Chemung Financial and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chemung Financial	$140.78 million	2.55	$15.10 million	$3.79	19.63
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	$935.52 million	3.35	$144.88 million	$1.52	21.22

Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has higher revenue and earnings than Chemung Financial. Chemung Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Chemung Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Chemung Financial pays out 35.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays out 50.0% 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. Chemung Financial has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

Chemung Financial has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida beats Chemung Financial on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chemung Financial

Chemung Financial Corporation operates as a bank holding company for Chemung Canal Trust Company that provides a range of banking, financing, fiduciary, and other financial services. The company provides demand, savings, and time deposits; non-interest and interest-bearing checking accounts; and insured money market accounts. It also offers commercial and agricultural loans comprising loans to small to mid-sized businesses; commercial and residential mortgage loans; and consumer loans, including home equity lines of credit and home equity term loans. In addition, the company provides interest rate swaps, letters of credit, employee benefit plans, insurance products, mutual fund, brokerage, and tax preparation services. Further, it offers guardian, custodian, trustee, investment, pension, estate planning, and employee benefit administrative services, as well as acts as an agent for pension, profit-sharing, and other employee benefit trusts. Chemung Financial Corporation was founded in 1833 and is headquartered in Elmira, New York.

About Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of integrated financial services. It provides banking and investment services to businesses and consumers, including personal and business deposit products, Internet and mobile banking, personal, commercial and mortgage loans, wealth management services, and treasury management solutions. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Stuart, FL.