Contrasting Eagle Financial Services (EFSI) and Its Peers

Eagle Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSI) is one of 317 public companies in the “State commercial banks” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Eagle Financial Services to similar companies based on the strength of its valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Eagle Financial Services and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eagle Financial Services	0	0	2	0	3.00
Eagle Financial Services Competitors	2195	11289	7636	355	2.29

Eagle Financial Services presently has a consensus target price of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.74%. As a group, “State commercial banks” companies have a potential upside of 21.23%. Given Eagle Financial Services’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Eagle Financial Services is more favorable than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Eagle Financial Services and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eagle Financial Services	13.59%	10.92%	0.67%
Eagle Financial Services Competitors	16.71%	9.95%	0.91%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.3% of Eagle Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.0% of shares of all “State commercial banks” companies are held by institutional investors. 12.3% of Eagle Financial Services shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.7% of shares of all “State commercial banks” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Eagle Financial Services and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eagle Financial Services	$65.83 million	$15.34 million	7.54
Eagle Financial Services Competitors	$2.39 billion	$306.37 million	22.15

Eagle Financial Services’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Eagle Financial Services. Eagle Financial Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

Eagle Financial Services has a beta of 0.52, meaning that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eagle Financial Services’ peers have a beta of 0.55, meaning that their average stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Eagle Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Eagle Financial Services pays out 28.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “State commercial banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out 31.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Eagle Financial Services has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Eagle Financial Services is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Eagle Financial Services peers beat Eagle Financial Services on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Eagle Financial Services Company Profile

Eagle Financial Services, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Bank of Clarke County that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services in the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia. The company’s deposit products include checking, NOW, money market, and regular savings accounts; and demand and time deposits. Its loan portfolio comprises one-to-four-family residential real estate, commercial real estate, construction and land development, and commercial and industrial loans, as well as secured and unsecured consumer loans, which include personal installment loans, personal lines of credit, automobile loans, and credit card loans. The company also offers personal and retirement plan services; investment services comprising tax-deferred annuities, IRAs and rollovers, mutual funds, retirement plans, college savings plans, life insurance, long term care insurance, fixed income investing, brokerage CDs, and full service or discount brokerage services; non-deposit investment products; and title insurance products. In addition, it provides ATM and debit cards; and telephone, internet, and mobile banking services, as well as other commercial deposit account services, such as ACH origination and remote deposit capture services. The company operates through twelve full-service branches, two loan production offices, one wealth management office, and one drive-through only facility, as well as 13 ATM locations in the Virginia communities of Berryville, Winchester, Boyce, Stephens City, Purcellville, Warrenton, Leesburg, Ashburn, and Fairfax. Eagle Financial Services, Inc. was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Berryville, Virginia.