Critical Review: Surrey Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SRYB) and Chemung Financial (NASDAQ:CHMG)

Chemung Financial (NASDAQ:CHMG) and Surrey Bancorp (OTCMKTS:SRYB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Chemung Financial and Surrey Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chemung Financial	0	2	0	0	2.00
Surrey Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

Chemung Financial currently has a consensus target price of $58.50, suggesting a potential upside of 14.53%. Given Chemung Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Chemung Financial is more favorable than Surrey Bancorp.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Chemung Financial and Surrey Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chemung Financial	$96.11 million	2.53	$23.67 million	$4.96	10.30
Surrey Bancorp	$16.20 million	4.23	$5.10 million	$1.52	10.99

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

Dividends

Chemung Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Surrey Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Chemung Financial pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Surrey Bancorp pays out 31.6% 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.

Profitability

This table compares Chemung Financial and Surrey Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chemung Financial	15.70%	11.47%	0.85%
Surrey Bancorp	37.97%	N/A	N/A

Volatility & Risk

Chemung Financial has a beta of 0.19, meaning that its stock price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Surrey Bancorp has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

47.5% of Chemung Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.7% of Surrey Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 12.0% of Chemung Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 33.7% of Surrey Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Chemung Financial beats Surrey Bancorp on 9 of the 15 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 Surrey Bancorp

Surrey BanCorp engages in the provision of banking solutions through its subsidiaries, Surrey Bank & Trust . It offers checking accounts, savings, deposit services, mortgages, real estate loans, commercial credit products, business checking, and electronic banking. The company was founded on May 1, 2003 and is headquartered in Mount Airy, NC.