Head-To-Head Contrast: Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CMTV) versus SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK)

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) and Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CMTV) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, valuation, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

58.8% of SmartFinancial shares are held by institutional investors. 6.9% of SmartFinancial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.6% of Community Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

SmartFinancial has a beta of 0.73, indicating that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

SmartFinancial pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. SmartFinancial pays out 11.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Community Bancorp pays out 31.5% 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. SmartFinancial has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for SmartFinancial and Community Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SmartFinancial	0	3	1	1	2.60
Community Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00

SmartFinancial presently has a consensus target price of $45.88, suggesting a potential upside of 8.58%. Given SmartFinancial’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe SmartFinancial is more favorable than Community Bancorp.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SmartFinancial and Community Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SmartFinancial	$203.48 million	3.55	$36.14 million	$3.12	13.54
Community Bancorp	$68.79 million	3.28	$16.97 million	$3.17	12.74

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

Profitability

This table compares SmartFinancial and Community Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SmartFinancial	12.67%	7.33%	0.71%
Community Bancorp	25.28%	16.25%	1.45%

Summary

SmartFinancial beats Community Bancorp on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SmartFinancial

SmartFinancial, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for SmartBank that provides various financial services to individuals and corporate customers in Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. It operates through Commercial Real Estate, Consumer Real Estate, Construction and Land Development, Commercial and Industrial, Leases, and Consumer and Other segments. The company offers noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing checking, interest-bearing demand, savings, money market, time deposit, individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also provides commercial and residential real estate, consumer real estate, and construction and land development loans; commercial and financial loans and leases; commercial business and mortgage loans; and direct consumer installment, educational, agriculture, and other revolving credit loans; equipment financing, heavy equipment, semis, and trailers loans and leases to small and mid-size companies; letters of credit; and overdraft facilities. In addition, the company offers wealth management, insurance, mortgage origination, and internet and mobile banking services. SmartFinancial, Inc. is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee.

About Community Bancorp

Community Bancorp. operates as the bank holding company for Community National Bank that provides a range of retail banking services to residents, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and municipalities. It provides various consumer banking products and services, including checking accounts, savings programs, ATMs, debit/credit cards, and night deposit facilities, as well as online, mobile, and telephone banking. The company’s business banking products and services comprise credit products for various business purposes, including financing for commercial business properties, equipment, inventories, and accounts receivable, as well as letters of credit; and business checking and other deposit accounts, cash management services, repurchase agreements, ACH and wire transfer services, and remote deposit capture. It offers commercial real estate lending products for commercial developers and investors, residential builders and developers, and community development entities, which include credit products to facilitate the purchase of land and/or build structures for business, for investors to develop residential or commercial properties, and for real estate secured financing of existing businesses, as well as financing to startups and other small businesses. The company’s residential real estate lending products include fixed-rate and adjustable rate residential mortgage and home equity loans; retail credit products include personal, automobile, and boat/recreational vehicle loans; and municipal and institutional banking products and services for state and local governments, schools, charities, membership, and not-for-profit associations comprise deposit accounts, tax-exempt loans, lines of credit, and term loans, as well as a collateralized secured deposit products. It operates through a main office in Derby; and eleven branch offices in northeastern and central Vermont. Community Bancorp. was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Derby, Vermont.