Head-To-Head Survey: Enterprise Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSC) & Truxton (OTCMKTS:TRUX)

Truxton (OTCMKTS:TRUX) and Enterprise Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Truxton and Enterprise Financial Services, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Truxton	0	0	0	0	N/A
Enterprise Financial Services	0	0	3	0	3.00

Enterprise Financial Services has a consensus target price of $50.67, suggesting a potential upside of 3.40%. Given Enterprise Financial Services’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Enterprise Financial Services is more favorable than Truxton.

Dividends

Truxton pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Enterprise Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Truxton pays out 28.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Enterprise Financial Services pays out 23.1% 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.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.4% of Truxton shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.2% of Enterprise Financial Services shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Enterprise Financial Services 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Truxton and Enterprise Financial Services”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Truxton	$67.30 million	3.07	$17.54 million	$6.04	11.75
Enterprise Financial Services	$531.97 million	3.45	$194.06 million	$4.67	10.49

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

Risk & Volatility

Truxton has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Enterprise Financial Services has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Truxton and Enterprise Financial Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Truxton	23.95%	N/A	N/A
Enterprise Financial Services	19.61%	10.95%	1.24%

Summary

Enterprise Financial Services beats Truxton on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Truxton

Truxton Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides various banking, investment management, and trust administration services to individuals, businesses, and charitable institutions in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including demand, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also provides lending products, such as residential and commercial real estate mortgages, commercial loans, construction and land development loans, commercial and industrial loans, operating lines of credit, and loans to individual. In addition, the company offers strategic and capital advisory services, business banking, and treasury management services; and insurance products. The company was formerly known as NBT Holdings Inc. and changed its name to Truxton Corporation in May 2013. Truxton Corporation was founded in 2004 and is based in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Enterprise Financial Services

Enterprise Financial Services Corp operates as the holding company for Enterprise Bank & Trust that offers banking and wealth management services to individuals and corporate customers primarily in Arizona, California, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, and New Mexico. It provides checking, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, real estate construction and development, residential real estate, small business administration, agricultural, consumer, and other loan products. In addition, it offers treasury management and international trade services; tax credit brokerage services; life insurance premium and sponsor finance; tax credit related lending; other deposit accounts, such as community associations, property management, third party escrow, and trust services; treasury management product and services; customized solutions and products; cash management; fiduciary, investment management, and financial advisory services; and customer hedging products, including international banking, card services, and tax credit businesses. Further, the company provides online, device applications, text, and voice banking; remote deposit capture; internet banking, mobile banking, cash management, positive pay services, fraud detection and prevention, automated payables, check image, and statement and document imaging; and controlled disbursements, repurchase agreements, and sweep investment accounts. Enterprise Financial Services Corp was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Clayton, Missouri.