Head to Head Review: Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (OTCMKTS:FMCB) versus Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK)

Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (OTCMKTS:FMCB – Get Rating) and Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK – Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Farmers & Merchants Bancorp and Meridian, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Farmers & Merchants Bancorp	0	0	0	0	N/A
Meridian	0	0	1	0	3.00

Meridian has a consensus target price of $19.50, indicating a potential downside of 27.10%. Given Meridian’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Meridian is more favorable than Farmers & Merchants Bancorp.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

49.1% of Meridian shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.4% of Meridian shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Farmers & Merchants Bancorp and Meridian’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Farmers & Merchants Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Meridian	$130.45 million	1.19	$21.83 million	$3.57	7.49

Meridian has higher revenue and earnings than Farmers & Merchants Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Farmers & Merchants Bancorp and Meridian’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Farmers & Merchants Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A
Meridian	16.73%	14.09%	1.17%

Summary

Meridian beats Farmers & Merchants Bancorp on 8 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Farmers & Merchants Bancorp

(Get Rating)

Farmers & Merchants Bancorp is a bank holding company for Farmers & Merchants Bank, which engages in the provision of financial services to individuals, families, and businesses. Its services include commercial, commercial real estate, real estate construction, agribusiness, consumer, credit card, residential real estate loans, and equipment leases. The company was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Lodi, CA.

About Meridian

(Get Rating)

Meridian Corp. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of commercial and consumer banking services. It operates through the following segments: Banking, Meridian Wealth, and Mortgage Banking. The Banking segment consists of commercial and retail banking. The Meridian Wealth segment offers wealth management services and products. The Mortgage Banking segment consists of the central loan production facility and retail and profit sharing loan production offices. The company was founded by Christopher J. Annas on June 8, 2009 and is headquartered in Malvern, PA.