Head to Head Review: Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) vs. SouthState Bank (NYSE:SSB)

Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) and SouthState Bank (NYSE:SSB) are both financial services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

64.0% of Live Oak Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of SouthState Bank shares are held by institutional investors. 23.4% of Live Oak Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of SouthState Bank shares are held by 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.

Profitability

This table compares Live Oak Bancshares and SouthState Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Live Oak Bancshares	5.71%	5.46%	0.42%
SouthState Bank	19.27%	10.23%	1.34%

Dividends

Live Oak Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. SouthState Bank pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Live Oak Bancshares pays out 9.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SouthState Bank pays out 35.8% 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. SouthState Bank has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. SouthState Bank is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Live Oak Bancshares and SouthState Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Live Oak Bancshares	0	2	0	1	2.67
SouthState Bank	0	2	10	3	3.07

SouthState Bank has a consensus target price of $117.08, suggesting a potential upside of 21.65%. Given SouthState Bank’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SouthState Bank is more favorable than Live Oak Bancshares.

Volatility and Risk

Live Oak Bancshares has a beta of 1.81, suggesting that its stock price is 81% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SouthState Bank has a beta of 0.68, suggesting that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Live Oak Bancshares and SouthState Bank”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Live Oak Bancshares	$936.15 million	1.74	$77.47 million	$1.22	29.20
SouthState Bank	$2.44 billion	3.99	$534.78 million	$6.71	14.34

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

Summary

SouthState Bank beats Live Oak Bancshares on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Live Oak Bancshares

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Live Oak Banking Company that provides various commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, and professionals in North Carolina, the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including noninterest-bearing demand, as well as interest-bearing checking, money market, savings, and time deposits. It also offers commercial and industrial loans; construction and development loans; owner occupied and non-owner occupied collateral commercial real estate loans; and commercial land loans. In addition, the company provides settlement, accounting, and securitization services for government guaranteed loans; wealth and investment management services to high-net-worth individuals and families; investment advisory services to a series of funds focused on providing venture capital to new and emerging financial technology companies; and an on-site restaurant location to company employees and business visitors. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.

About SouthState Bank

SouthState Corporation operates as the bank holding company for SouthState Bank, National Association that provides a range of banking services and products to individuals and companies. It accepts checking accounts, savings deposits, interest-bearing transaction accounts, certificates of deposits, money market accounts, and other time deposits. The company also offers commercial real estate loans, residential real estate loans, commercial, and industrial loans, as well as consumer loans, including auto, boat, and personal installment loans. In addition, it provides debit card, mobile and funds transfer products, and treasury management services comprising merchant, automated clearing house, lock-box, remote deposit capture, and other treasury services. Further, the company offers safe deposit boxes, bank money orders, wire transfer, brokerage services, and alternative investment products, including annuities, mutual funds, and trust and asset management services; and credit cards, letters of credit, and home equity lines of credit. As of December 31, 2021, it served customers through 281 branches in Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. SouthState Corporation also serves its customers through online, mobile, and telephone banking platforms. The company was formerly known as First Financial Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to SouthState Corporation in July 2013. SouthState Corporation was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Winter Haven, Florida.