LINKBANCORP (NASDAQ:LNKB) versus ChoiceOne Financial Services (NASDAQ:COFS) Financial Comparison

ChoiceOne Financial Services (NASDAQ:COFS) and LINKBANCORP (NASDAQ:LNKB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and risk.

Risk and Volatility

ChoiceOne Financial Services has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LINKBANCORP has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for ChoiceOne Financial Services and LINKBANCORP, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ChoiceOne Financial Services	0	1	0	0	2.00
LINKBANCORP	0	1	0	0	2.00

ChoiceOne Financial Services presently has a consensus price target of $24.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.61%. LINKBANCORP has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.82%. Given LINKBANCORP’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe LINKBANCORP is more favorable than ChoiceOne Financial Services.

Dividends

ChoiceOne Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. LINKBANCORP pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. ChoiceOne Financial Services pays out 38.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. LINKBANCORP pays out -58.8% 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. ChoiceOne Financial Services has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. LINKBANCORP is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ChoiceOne Financial Services and LINKBANCORP’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ChoiceOne Financial Services	$113.89 million	1.55	$21.26 million	$2.82	8.29
LINKBANCORP	$66.29 million	3.53	-$11.97 million	($0.51)	-12.27

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

19.9% of ChoiceOne Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.5% of LINKBANCORP shares are held by institutional investors. 8.3% of ChoiceOne Financial Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.2% of LINKBANCORP shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares ChoiceOne Financial Services and LINKBANCORP’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ChoiceOne Financial Services	18.67%	11.73%	0.85%
LINKBANCORP	-18.34%	3.59%	0.38%

Summary

ChoiceOne Financial Services beats LINKBANCORP on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ChoiceOne Financial Services

ChoiceOne Financial Services, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for ChoiceOne Bank that provides banking services to corporations, partnerships, and individuals in Michigan. The company offers various deposit products, including time, savings, and demand deposits, safe deposit, and automated transaction machine services. It also provides commercial lending products, such as business, industry, agricultural, construction, inventory, and real estate loans; and consumer loans comprising direct and indirect loans to consumers and purchasers of residential and real properties. In addition, the company offers alternative investment products, which include annuities and mutual funds; and sells insurance policies, such as life and health for commercial and consumer clients. Further, it provides trust and wealth management services. ChoiceOne Financial Services, Inc. was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Sparta, Michigan.

About LINKBANCORP

LINKBANCORP, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for The Gratz Bank, that provides various banking products and services to individuals, families, nonprofit, and business customers in Pennsylvania. Its deposit products include demand, saving, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposits. The company also offers commercial real estate, commercial business, commercial real estate construction, land development, residential real estate, home equity, consumer, agricultural, and municipal loans. It also provides online banking, mobile banking, direct and remote deposit, and cash management services. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.