CB Financial designated as ‘Sm-All Star’
CB Financial Services, the parent company of Carmichaels-based Community Bank, was designated a “Sm-All Star” by a New York City Investment Banking Firm.
The latest award for the NASDAQ-traded bank, which places it in the top 34 banks out of a universe of 435 financial institutions, was bestowed by Sandler O’Neill, a full-service investment banking firm and broker-dealer focused on the financial services sector with an emphasis on banks, thrifts and other financial service firms.
The Sandler O’Neill Sm-All Star ranking looked at banks and thrifts across the United States with a market capitalization of less than $2.5 billion.
CB Financial, with a market cap of $87 million, was among the smallest banks to win the award, which was based on an evaluation of seven financial variables.
Sandler O’Neill analysts looked at year-over-year growth trends in earnings per share, loans and deposits. To measure profitability the analysts included 12 months of return on average equity.
It also looked at nonperforming assets to loans plus other real estate owned (foreclosures) ratio and the net charge-off ratio. It also included the tangible common equity to tangible assets ratio as an indicator of capital levels.
According to Sandler O’Neill, CB Financial, which in December completed its merger with First Federal Savings Bank, has a price to 2016 estimated earnings of 9.3 times earnings.
Its earnings per share growth of 12.2 percent was nearly twice the median of all of the 435 banks of 6.6 percent while its other metrics were well above the median, including loan growth of 71.2 percent compared to the median of 9.2 percent; deposit growth of 46.5 percent compared to 6.5 percent and ROA of 10.2 percent versus the median of 7.9 percent.
CB Financial also outperformed the other Sm-All Stars in several metrics. Its 71.2 percent loan growth was well above the All Stars’ median of 19 percent, while its deposit growth of 46.5 percent was more than three times that of the other top performers, while its ROAE was in line with the median of the other winners.
CB Financial 0.5 percent figure for nonperforming assets and loans matched those of the other All Star winners, while the figure was half of the median of all banks and thrifts.
Sandler O’Neill noted banks in the Mid-Atlantic region held the dominant share in each Sm-All Star class since the downturn, noting the trend continued in this year’s class, where 38 percent of the group hailed from Maryland, New jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
CB Financial was one of three banks to earn the All Star designation in Pennsylvania.