Contrasting Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) and CPB (NYSE:CPF)

Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) and CPB (NYSE:CPF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and CPB”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oak Valley Bancorp	$78.05 million	3.02	$24.95 million	$2.93	9.59
CPB	$262.32 million	3.18	$53.41 million	$2.23	13.87

CPB has higher revenue and earnings than Oak Valley Bancorp. Oak Valley Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CPB, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CPB has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Oak Valley Bancorp and CPB, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oak Valley Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
CPB	0	0	1	0	3.00

CPB has a consensus price target of $35.00, indicating a potential upside of 13.20%. Given CPB’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CPB is more favorable than Oak Valley Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and CPB’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oak Valley Bancorp	26.38%	13.12%	1.27%
CPB	17.31%	12.80%	0.95%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.4% of CPB shares are held by institutional investors. 18.1% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of CPB 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.

Dividends

Oak Valley Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. CPB pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Oak Valley Bancorp pays out 20.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CPB pays out 48.4% 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. Oak Valley Bancorp has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and CPB has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

CPB beats Oak Valley Bancorp on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oak Valley Bancorp

Oak Valley Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Oak Valley Community Bank that provides a range of commercial banking services to individuals and small to medium-sized businesses in the Central Valley and the Eastern Sierras. The company's deposits products include checking and savings, money market, health savings, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial real estate loans, commercial business lending and trade finance, and small business administration lending, as well as consumer loans, including automobile loans, home mortgages, credit lines, and other personal loans. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, remote deposit capture, merchant, night depository, extended hours, wire transfer of funds, note collection services, and automated teller machines. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Oakdale, California.

About CPB

Central Pacific Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Central Pacific Bank that provides a range of commercial banking products and services to businesses, professionals, and individuals in the United States. It offers various deposit products and services, including checking, savings and time deposits, cash management and digital banking, trust, and retail brokerage services, as well as money market accounts and certificates of deposit. The company also provides various lending activities, such as commercial, commercial and residential mortgage, home equity, and consumer loans; and other products and services comprising debit cards, internet and mobile banking, cash management services, full-service ATMs, safe deposit boxes, international banking services, night depository facilities, foreign exchange, and wire transfers. In addition, it offers wealth management products and services that include non-deposit investment products, annuities, insurance, investment management, asset custody and general consultation, and planning services. The company was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.