CCBG

CCBG is a 62-branch Florida/Georgia community bank whose 2025 numbers tell a clean story: net income $61.6M (+16.3% YoY), diluted EPS $3.60 (+15.4%), and operating cash flow $87.6M (+37.8%) on a balance sheet that grew assets only 1.4%. That combination — earnings up double-digits while the balance sheet barely grew — points to net-interest-margin expansion and operating leverage rather than asset-side risk-taking, exactly what you want to see in a community bank late in a rate cycle. At $48.36 the stock trades at 13.4x trailing EPS and roughly 1.5x book ($553M equity / 17.2M shares ≈ $32 BVPS), modest for a bank delivering 11.1% ROE with a fortress-light leverage profile (liabilities/equity of 6.93x is conservative for the group).

The MD&A reinforces the moat: management explicitly calls out 'a strong core deposit funding base, a key differentiator and driver of our profitability and franchise value,' anchored in markets where CCBG ranks top-three for deposit share in 7 of 12 Florida counties (8.0% share) and one of three Georgia counties. Tallahassee, Gainesville, Macon and the Suncoast counties are dominated by 'state and local governments, healthcare providers, educational institutions' — sticky, recession-resilient deposit sources that explain why cash & equivalents jumped 35.2% to $530M while deposit costs stayed contained. Equity grew 11.6% and retained earnings 9.6%, so the bank is internally funding growth while still paying a rising dividend ($17.1M, +14.5%).