Reviewing Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) and West Shore Bank (OTCMKTS:WSSH)

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) and West Shore Bank (OTCMKTS:WSSH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Shore Bancshares and West Shore Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shore Bancshares	0	1	3	1	3.00
West Shore Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00

Shore Bancshares presently has a consensus price target of $22.00, suggesting a potential downside of 4.27%. Given Shore Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Shore Bancshares is more favorable than West Shore Bank.

Profitability

This table compares Shore Bancshares and West Shore Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shore Bancshares	18.20%	11.84%	1.12%
West Shore Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

59.8% of Shore Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 8.7% of Shore Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Shore Bancshares and West Shore Bank”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shore Bancshares	$342.72 million	2.24	$59.51 million	$1.88	12.22
West Shore Bank	$48.89 million	1.08	$6.25 million	N/A	N/A

Shore Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than West Shore Bank.

Risk & Volatility

Shore Bancshares has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Shore Bank has a beta of 0.02, meaning that its share price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Shore Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. West Shore Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Shore Bancshares pays out 29.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Shore Bancshares beats West Shore Bank on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shore Bancshares

Shore Bancshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for the Shore United Bank, N.A. that provides various commercial and consumer banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations. It offers checking, savings, overnight investment sweep, and money market accounts; and regular and IRA certificates of deposit, as well as CDARS programs and cash management services. The company also provides commercial loans, such as secured and unsecured loans, working capital loans, lines of credit, term loans, accounts receivable financing, real estate acquisition and development loans, construction loans, and letters of credit; residential real estate construction loans; residential mortgage loans; and loans to consumers, including home equity, automobile, installment, home improvement, and personal lines of credit, as well as other consumer financing products. In addition, it offers trust, asset management, and financial planning services; treasury management services, such as merchant card processing, remote deposit capture, and ACH origination, as well as telephone, mobile, and Internet banking services; safe deposit boxes; debit and credit cards; and automatic teller machine services. Shore Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Easton, Maryland.

About West Shore Bank

West Shore Bank Corp. operates as the bank holding company for West Shore Bank that provides various banking products and services for individuals and businesses. The company accepts checking, saving, money market, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. Its loan products include auto, recreational, personal term, commercial real estate, small business administration, municipal, business term, and home mortgage and equity loans; business lines of credit; and letters of credit. The company also offers ATM/debit, credit, and gift and travel cards; wealth planning process, investment management, trusts and estates, retirement planning, west shore investment services; savings bonds; and direct deposit, overdraft, safe deposit boxes, wire transfer, remote deposit capture, merchant card, ACH and wire, sweep accounts, positive pay, bill pay, and online and mobile banking services. The company was founded in 1898 and is based in Ludington, Michigan.