Head-To-Head Comparison: Renasant (NASDAQ:RNST) & West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC)

West Coast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SCZC) and Renasant (NASDAQ:RNST) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares West Coast Community Bancorp and Renasant’s 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
Renasant	17.91%	6.58%	0.93%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for West Coast Community Bancorp and Renasant, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
West Coast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Renasant	0	0	3	1	3.25

Renasant has a consensus price target of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.07%. Given Renasant’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Renasant is more favorable than West Coast Community Bancorp.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares West Coast Community Bancorp and Renasant”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	4.15	$29.58 million	$3.39	14.31
Renasant	$985.85 million	3.91	$195.46 million	$2.12	19.12

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

9.7% of West Coast Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.3% of Renasant shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Renasant shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

West Coast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Renasant has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

West Coast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Renasant pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. West Coast Community Bancorp pays out 23.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Renasant pays out 43.4% 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.

Summary

Renasant beats West Coast Community Bancorp on 12 of the 17 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 Renasant

Renasant Corporation operates as a bank holding company for Renasant Bank that provides a range of financial, wealth management, fiduciary, and insurance services to retail and commercial customers. The company operates through Community Banks, Insurance, and Wealth Management segments. The Community Banks segment offers checking and savings accounts, business and personal loans, asset-based lending, and factoring equipment leasing services, as well as safe deposit and night depository facilities. It also provides commercial, financial, and agricultural loans; equipment financing and leasing; real estate1-4 family mortgage; real estatecommercial mortgage; real estateconstruction loans for the construction of single family residential properties, multi-family properties, and commercial projects; installment loans to individuals; and interim construction loans, as well as automated teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, call center, and treasury management services. The Insurance segment provides insurance agency services, such as commercial and personal insurance products through insurance carriers. The Wealth Management segment offers a range of wealth management and fiduciary services, including administration and management of trust accounts, such as personal and corporate benefit accounts, and custodial accounts, as well as accounting and money management for trust accounts; annuities, mutual funds, and other investment services through a third party broker-dealer; administrative and compliance services; and qualified retirement plans, IRAs, employee benefit plans, personal trusts, and estates. Renasant Corporation was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.