Financial Comparison: Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) and Bank of South Carolina (NASDAQ:BKSC)

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) and Bank of South Carolina (NASDAQ:BKSC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Ally Financial and Bank of South Carolina, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ally Financial	4	7	7	0	2.17
Bank of South Carolina	0	0	0	0	N/A

Ally Financial currently has a consensus target price of $38.47, suggesting a potential downside of 2.11%. Given Ally Financial’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Ally Financial is more favorable than Bank of South Carolina.

Dividends

Ally Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Bank of South Carolina pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Ally Financial pays out 49.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bank of South Carolina pays out 71.6% 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ally Financial and Bank of South Carolina’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ally Financial	$8.21 billion	1.45	$1.02 billion	$2.45	16.04
Bank of South Carolina	$26.08 million	2.51	$5.49 million	$0.95	12.63

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

Volatility and Risk

Ally Financial has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bank of South Carolina has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ally Financial and Bank of South Carolina’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ally Financial	10.59%	8.35%	0.48%
Bank of South Carolina	19.55%	12.11%	0.83%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

88.8% of Ally Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of Bank of South Carolina shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Ally Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.8% of Bank of South Carolina shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Ally Financial beats Bank of South Carolina on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ally Financial

Ally Financial Inc., a digital financial-services company, provides various digital financial products and services in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. The company operates through Automotive Finance Operations, Insurance Operations, Mortgage Finance Operations, and Corporate Finance Operations segments. The Automotive Finance Operations segment offers automotive financing services, including providing retail installment sales contracts, loans and operating leases, term loans to dealers, financing dealer floorplans and other lines of credit to dealers, warehouse lines to automotive retailers, and fleet financing. It also provides financing services to companies and municipalities for the purchase or lease of vehicles, and vehicle-remarketing services. The Insurance Operations segment offers consumer finance protection and insurance products through the automotive dealer channel, and commercial insurance products directly to dealers. This segment provides vehicle service and maintenance contract, and guaranteed asset protection products; and underwrites commercial insurance coverages, which primarily insure dealers' vehicle inventory. The Mortgage Finance Operations segment manages consumer mortgage loan portfolio that includes bulk purchases of jumbo and low-to-moderate income mortgage loans originated by third parties, as well as direct-to-consumer mortgage offerings. The Corporate Finance Operations segment provides senior secured leveraged cash flow and asset-based loans to middle market companies; leveraged loans; and commercial real estate product to serve companies in the nursing facilities, senior housing, and medical office buildings. It also offers commercial banking products and services. In addition, it provides securities brokerage and investment advisory services. The company was formerly known as GMAC Inc. and changed its name to Ally Financial Inc. in May 2010. Ally Financial Inc. was founded in 1919 and is based in Detroit, Michigan.

About Bank of South Carolina

Bank of South Carolina Corporation operates as a bank holding company for The Bank of South Carolina that provides a range of financial products and services primarily in Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties of South Carolina. Its deposits include non-interest-bearing demand accounts, NOW accounts, money market accounts, time deposits, and savings accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company offers secured and unsecured commercial loans, commercial real estate construction loans, consumer construction loans, home equity lines of credit, and mortgage originations, as well as paycheck protection program loans. It operates five banking house locations. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina.