Head to Head Survey: Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) and Washington Trust Bancorp (NASDAQ:WASH)

Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) and Washington Trust Bancorp (NASDAQ:WASH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Summit State Bank has a beta of 0.19, indicating that its stock price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Washington Trust Bancorp has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Summit State Bank and Washington Trust Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Summit State Bank	0	1	0	0	2.00
Washington Trust Bancorp	0	3	1	0	2.25

Washington Trust Bancorp has a consensus price target of $35.50, indicating a potential downside of 9.42%. Given Washington Trust Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Washington Trust Bancorp is more favorable than Summit State Bank.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Summit State Bank and Washington Trust Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Summit State Bank	$58.82 million	1.47	$6.80 million	$0.34	37.62
Washington Trust Bancorp	$234.01 million	3.19	$52.24 million	$2.88	13.61

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

Profitability

This table compares Summit State Bank and Washington Trust Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Summit State Bank	3.87%	N/A	N/A
Washington Trust Bancorp	14.50%	10.18%	0.84%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

65.8% of Washington Trust Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Washington Trust Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Washington Trust Bancorp beats Summit State Bank on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Summit State Bank

Summit State Bank engages in providing an array of financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, their owners and employees, entrepreneurs, high net worth families, foundations, estates, and individual consumers. It specializes in business services, personal accounts, nonprofit programs, and mobile banking ranging from lending, checking, merchant, eBanking, automated teller machines, equity loans, and others. The company was founded on December 20, 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA.

About Washington Trust Bancorp

Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for The Washington Trust Company, of Westerly that provides various banking and financial services to individuals and businesses. The company operates in two segments, Commercial Banking and Wealth Management Services. The Commercial Banking segment offers deposit accounts, including interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing demand deposits, NOW and savings accounts, money market and retirement deposit accounts, and time deposits; various commercial and retail lending products, such as commercial real estate loans, including commercial mortgages, and construction and development loans; commercial and industrial loans comprising working capital, equipment financing, and financing for other business-related purposes; residential real estate loans that consist of mortgage and homeowner construction loans; and consumer loans comprising home equity loans and lines of credit, personal installment loans, and loans to individuals secured by general aviation aircraft. This segment also provides debit cards; automated teller machines (ATMs); telephone banking, internet banking, mobile banking, remote deposit capture, and other cash management services; and investment portfolio and wholesale funding services. The Wealth Management Services segment offers investment management; financial planning; personal trust and estate services, such as trustee, personal representative, custodian, and guardian; and settlement of decedents’ estates, as well as institutional trust services comprising custody and fiduciary services for personal and institutional clients. Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1800 and is headquartered in Westerly, Rhode Island.