Professional (NASDAQ: PFHD – Get a rating) and early merchants (NASDAQ:FRME – Get a rating) are both finance companies, but which company is better? We’ll compare the two companies based on earnings strength, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and risk.
Analyst Notes
This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Professional and First Traders, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sales Ratings | Hold odds | Buy reviews | Strong buy odds | Rating | |
| Professional | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
| Early merchants | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.00 |
Professional currently has a consensus price target of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.23%. First Merchants has a consensus price target of $47.33, suggesting a potential upside of 20.26%. Given First Merchants’ higher consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe that First Merchants is more favorable than Professional.
Valuation and benefits
This table compares the revenue, earnings per share (EPS), and valuation of Professional and First Merchants.
| Gross revenue | Price/sales ratio | Net revenue | Earnings per share | Price/earnings ratio | |
| Professional | $85.81 million | 3.39 | $21.36 million | $1.36 | 15.77 |
| Early merchants | $555.96 million | 3.81 | $205.53 million | $3.81 | 10:33 am |
First Merchants has higher earnings and earnings than Professional. First Merchants trades at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Professional, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional and insider ownership
59.8% of Professional’s shares are held by institutional investors. By comparison, 73.8% of First Merchants’ shares are held by institutional investors. 8.6% of Professional shares are held by insiders. By comparison, 1.2% of First Merchants shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership indicates that hedge funds, large fund managers, and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Profitability
This chart compares the net margins, return on equity, and return on assets of professional merchants and early merchants.
| Net margins | Return on equity | return on assets | |
| Professional | 21.78% | 9.48% | 0.82% |
| Early merchants | 36.71% | 10.90% | 1.33% |
Summary
First Merchants beat Professional on 11 out of 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
Professional Company Profile (Get a rating)
Professional Holding Corp. primarily operates through its subsidiary, Professional Bank, provides banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, other professionals and entrepreneurs. Its deposit products include checking, NOW, savings and money market accounts, as well as IRAs and certificates of deposit. The Company’s lending products include commercial loans, residential mortgages, home equity lines of credit, installment loans and consumer lines of credit. It also offers online/digital and mobile banking, as well as cash management and cash management services. The company operates through a network of eleven locations in the Miami, Broward and Palm Beach county areas, as well as a digital innovation center located in Cleveland, Ohio and a loan production office in St. Pete, Florida. , Jacksonville, and Bedford, New Hampshire. Professional Holding Corp. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida.
First Merchants Company Profile (Get a rating)
First Merchants Corporation operates as the financial holding company for First Merchants Bank which provides community banking services. It accepts term, savings and demand deposits; and provides consumer, commercial, agro-industrial and real estate mortgages, as well as government financing. The company also offers trust services to individuals and businesses; private wealth brokerage and management; and letters of credit, repurchase agreements and other corporate services. It operates 109 banking locations in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan counties. The company also offers its services through electronic and mobile delivery channels. First Merchants Corporation was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Muncie, Indiana.
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