Head-To-Head Contrast: Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CMTV) vs. Pinnacle Financial Partners (NYSE:PNFP)

Pinnacle Financial Partners (NYSE:PNFP) and Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CMTV) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.4% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of Community Bancorp shares are owned 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

Pinnacle Financial Partners pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Pinnacle Financial Partners pays out 24.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Community Bancorp pays out 33.2% 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. Pinnacle Financial Partners has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

Pinnacle Financial Partners has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Pinnacle Financial Partners and Community Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pinnacle Financial Partners	0	8	10	1	2.63
Community Bancorp	0	1	0	0	2.00

Pinnacle Financial Partners currently has a consensus target price of $113.41, suggesting a potential upside of 36.92%. Given Pinnacle Financial Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Pinnacle Financial Partners is more favorable than Community Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Pinnacle Financial Partners and Community Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pinnacle Financial Partners	19.41%	10.10%	1.19%
Community Bancorp	24.67%	16.08%	1.42%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Pinnacle Financial Partners and Community Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pinnacle Financial Partners	$3.32 billion	1.94	$641.86 million	$8.09	10.24
Community Bancorp	$68.79 million	3.17	$16.97 million	$3.01	12.95

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

Summary

Pinnacle Financial Partners beats Community Bancorp on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pinnacle Financial Partners

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Pinnacle Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and professional entities in the United States. It accepts various deposits, including savings, noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing checking, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and provides treasury management services, such as online wire origination, enhanced ACH origination, positive pay, zero balance and sweep accounts, automated bill pay services, electronic receivables processing, lockbox processing, and merchant card acceptance services, small business and commercial credit cards corporate purchasing cards, and virtual accounting/deposit escrow solutions. The company also offers equipment and working capital loan; commercial real estate loans, such as investment properties and business loan; secured and unsecured loans comprising installment and term, lines of credit, and residential first mortgage, as well as home equity loans and home equity lines of credit; and credit cards for consumers and businesses. In addition, the company provides investment products; brokerage and investment advisory programs; and fiduciary and investment services, including personal trust, investment management, estate administration, endowments, foundations, individual retirement accounts, escrow services, and custody. Further, it offers insurance agency services in the property and casualty area; investment, merger and acquisition advisory services, private debt, equity and mezzanine, and other middle-market advisory services; and other banking services, including telephone and online banking, mobile banking, debit cards, direct deposit and remote deposit capture, mobile deposit option, automated teller machine, and cash management services. Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Community Bancorp

Community Bancorp. operates as the bank holding company for Community National Bank that provides a range of retail banking services to residents, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and municipalities. It provides various consumer banking products and services, including checking accounts, savings programs, ATMs, debit/credit cards, and night deposit facilities, as well as online, mobile, and telephone banking. The company’s business banking products and services comprise credit products for various business purposes, including financing for commercial business properties, equipment, inventories, and accounts receivable, as well as letters of credit; and business checking and other deposit accounts, cash management services, repurchase agreements, ACH and wire transfer services, and remote deposit capture. It offers commercial real estate lending products for commercial developers and investors, residential builders and developers, and community development entities, which include credit products to facilitate the purchase of land and/or build structures for business, for investors to develop residential or commercial properties, and for real estate secured financing of existing businesses, as well as financing to startups and other small businesses. The company’s residential real estate lending products include fixed-rate and adjustable rate residential mortgage and home equity loans; retail credit products include personal, automobile, and boat/recreational vehicle loans; and municipal and institutional banking products and services for state and local governments, schools, charities, membership, and not-for-profit associations comprise deposit accounts, tax-exempt loans, lines of credit, and term loans, as well as a collateralized secured deposit products. It operates through a main office in Derby; and eleven branch offices in northeastern and central Vermont. Community Bancorp. was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Derby, Vermont.