First Bancshares (FBMS) Competitors

CBTX (NASDAQ:CBTX) and First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, community ranking, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Do analysts recommend CBTX or FBMS?

First Bancshares has a consensus target price of $31.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.29%.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CBTX	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A
First Bancshares	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media favor CBTX or FBMS?

In the previous week, First Bancshares had 9 more articles in the media than CBTX. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for First Bancshares and 0 mentions for CBTX. CBTX's average media sentiment score of 0.74 beat First Bancshares' score of 0.00 indicating that First Bancshares is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
CBTX	Neutral
First Bancshares	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor CBTX or FBMS?

First Bancshares received 73 more outperform votes than CBTX when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 58.09% of users gave CBTX an outperform vote while only 57.18% of users gave First Bancshares an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
CBTX	Outperform Votes 158 58.09%	Underperform Votes 114 41.91%
First Bancshares	Outperform Votes 231 57.18%	Underperform Votes 173 42.82%

Is CBTX or FBMS more profitable?

CBTX has a net margin of 23.56% compared to CBTX's net margin of 20.00%. CBTX's return on equity of 9.73% beat First Bancshares' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CBTX	23.56%	6.60%	0.83%
First Bancshares	20.00%	9.73%	1.14%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of CBTX or FBMS?

46.8% of CBTX shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.0% of First Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 26.0% of CBTX shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of First Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, CBTX or FBMS?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CBTX	$148.36M	0.00	$35.60M	$1.48	N/A
First Bancshares	$387.64M	2.04	$75.46M	$2.52	10.06

Which has more risk and volatility, CBTX or FBMS?

CBTX has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Bancshares has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CBTX or FBMS a better dividend stock?

CBTX pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share. First Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. CBTX pays out 35.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Bancshares pays out 39.7% 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. First Bancshares has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years. First Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

First Bancshares beats CBTX on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.