Contrasting Orange County Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBT) & First Financial Bankshares (NASDAQ:FFIN)

Orange County Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBT) and First Financial Bankshares (NASDAQ:FFIN) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Orange County Bancorp and First Financial Bankshares, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Orange County Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
First Financial Bankshares	0	4	0	0	2.00

Orange County Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $66.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.84%. First Financial Bankshares has a consensus target price of $37.75, indicating a potential downside of 8.77%. Given Orange County Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Orange County Bancorp is more favorable than First Financial Bankshares.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

42.6% of Orange County Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.8% of First Financial Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. 10.5% of Orange County Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of First Financial Bankshares shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Orange County Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. First Financial Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Orange County Bancorp pays out 18.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Financial Bankshares pays out 49.7% 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 Financial Bankshares has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. First Financial Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Orange County Bancorp and First Financial Bankshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Orange County Bancorp	20.31%	16.91%	1.17%
First Financial Bankshares	28.76%	13.43%	1.56%

Volatility & Risk

Orange County Bancorp has a beta of 0.36, indicating that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Financial Bankshares has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Orange County Bancorp and First Financial Bankshares”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Orange County Bancorp	$131.19 million	2.64	$29.48 million	$5.12	11.95
First Financial Bankshares	$636.07 million	9.30	$198.98 million	$1.45	28.54

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

Summary

First Financial Bankshares beats Orange County Bancorp on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Orange County Bancorp

Orange County Bancorp, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides commercial and consumer banking products and services, and trust and wealth management services to small businesses, middle-market enterprises, local municipal governments, and individuals. It accepts various deposits, including interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing demand accounts, money market deposit accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also offers commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate construction loans, residential real estate loans, home equity loans, and consumer loans. In addition, it provides traditional trust and administration, asset management, financial planning, and wealth management services. The company operates full-service branches and loan production office in Orange, Westchester, Rockland, and Bronx counties in New York. Orange County Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Middletown, New York.

About First Financial Bankshares

First Financial Bankshares, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides commercial banking products and services in Texas. The company offers checking, savings and time deposits; automated teller machines, drive-in, and night deposit services; safe deposit facilities, remote deposit capture, internet banking, mobile banking, payroll cards, funds transfer, and performing other customary commercial banking services; securities brokerage services; and trust and wealth management services, including wealth management, estates administration, oil and gas management, testamentary trusts, revocable and irrevocable trusts, and agency accounts. It also provides commercial and industrial, municipal, agricultural, construction and development, farm, residential, and consumer auto and non-auto, as well as non-owner occupied and owner occupied commercial real estate loans. In addition, the company offers advisory and specialized services related to asset management, investing, purchasing, advertising, public relations, and technology services. First Financial Bankshares, Inc. was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Abilene, Texas.