Contrasting Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC) & WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC) and WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Plumas Bancorp has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WaFd has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Plumas Bancorp and WaFd’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Plumas Bancorp	26.67%	15.16%	1.76%
WaFd	18.25%	8.94%	0.90%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

41.7% of Plumas Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of WaFd shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of Plumas Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of WaFd shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Plumas Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. WaFd pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Plumas Bancorp pays out 28.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WaFd pays out 35.3% 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. Plumas Bancorp has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and WaFd has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. WaFd is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Plumas Bancorp and WaFd, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Plumas Bancorp	0	0	4	0	3.00
WaFd	0	5	1	0	2.17

Plumas Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $57.67, indicating a potential upside of 0.10%. WaFd has a consensus target price of $34.80, indicating a potential downside of 7.79%. Given Plumas Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Plumas Bancorp is more favorable than WaFd.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Plumas Bancorp and WaFd”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Plumas Bancorp	$112.17 million	3.58	$29.62 million	$4.72	12.21
WaFd	$762.89 million	3.66	$226.07 million	$3.06	12.33

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

Summary

Plumas Bancorp beats WaFd on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Plumas Bancorp

Plumas Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for the Plumas Bank that provides various banking products and services for small and middle market businesses, and individuals in Northeastern California and Northwestern Nevada. The company accepts various deposits, such as checking, money market checking, business sweep, public funds sweep, savings, time deposit, and retirement accounts. Its loan portfolio comprises of term real estate, commercial, and industrial term loans; government-guaranteed and agricultural loans, as well as credit lines; consumer, automobile, and home equity loans; land development and construction loans; and small business administration loans. In addition, the company provides remote deposit, telephone and mobile banking, internet banking with bill-pay options, cashier's check, bank-by-mail, automated teller machine, night depository, safe deposit box, direct deposit, electronic funds transfer, and other customary banking services. Plumas Bancorp was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.

About WaFd

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts. It also provides single-family dwellings, construction, land acquisition and development, consumer lot, multi-family residential, commercial real estate, home equity, business, and consumer loans, as well as commercial and industrial loans. In addition, the company offers insurance brokerage services, such as individual and business insurance policies; holds and markets real estate properties; and debit and credit cards, as well as acts as the trustee. It serves consumers, mid-sized and large businesses, and owners and developers of commercial real estate. The company was formerly known as Washington Federal, Inc. and changed its name to WaFd, Inc in September 2023. WaFd, Inc was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.