Reviewing Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) & FB Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBLA)

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) and FB Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBLA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Southern First Bancshares and FB Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern First Bancshares	$104.10 million	3.47	$15.53 million	$3.23	13.66
FB Bancorp	$85.90 million	2.82	-$6.21 million	$0.09	135.44

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

75.0% of Southern First Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 7.1% of Southern First Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of FB Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Southern First Bancshares and FB Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern First Bancshares	11.83%	7.74%	0.62%
FB Bancorp	-5.40%	-1.62%	-0.37%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Southern First Bancshares and FB Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern First Bancshares	0	2	1	0	2.33
FB Bancorp	1	0	0	0	1.00

Southern First Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $51.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.62%. Given Southern First Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Southern First Bancshares is more favorable than FB Bancorp.

Summary

Southern First Bancshares beats FB Bancorp on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Southern First Bancshares

Southern First Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Southern First Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans to the general public in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The company accepts various deposit products that include checking accounts, commercial checking accounts, and savings accounts, as well as other time deposits, including daily money market accounts and long-term certificates of deposit. Its loan portfolio comprises commercial real estate loans; construction real estate loans; commercial business loans for various lines of businesses, such as the manufacturing, service industry, and professional service areas; consumer real estate and home equity loans; and other consumer loans, including secured and unsecured installment loans and revolving lines of credit. In addition, the company provides other bank services, such as internet banking, cash management, safe deposit boxes, direct deposit, automatic drafts, bill payment, and mobile banking services. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.

About FB Bancorp

FB Bancorp Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Fidelity Bank. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides deposit accounts, mortgages, home equity and consumer loans, credit and debit cards, online and mobile banking, investments and other financial services. FB Bancorp Inc. is based in New Orleans.