Critical Review: Bay Commercial Bank (NASDAQ:BCML) and First Hawaiian (NASDAQ:FHB)

Bay Commercial Bank (NASDAQ:BCML) and First Hawaiian (NASDAQ:FHB) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Bay Commercial Bank and First Hawaiian, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bay Commercial Bank	0	1	2	0	2.67
First Hawaiian	3	7	0	1	1.91

Bay Commercial Bank currently has a consensus price target of $31.50, indicating a potential upside of 9.72%. First Hawaiian has a consensus price target of $27.75, indicating a potential upside of 12.80%. Given First Hawaiian’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe First Hawaiian is more favorable than Bay Commercial Bank.

Dividends

Bay Commercial Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. First Hawaiian pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Bay Commercial Bank pays out 47.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Hawaiian pays out 50.7% 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. Bay Commercial Bank has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

66.2% of Bay Commercial Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.6% of First Hawaiian shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Bay Commercial Bank shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of First Hawaiian shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Bay Commercial Bank has a beta of 0.55, suggesting that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Hawaiian has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Bay Commercial Bank and First Hawaiian’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bay Commercial Bank	16.51%	7.04%	0.89%
First Hawaiian	22.60%	9.68%	1.08%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Bay Commercial Bank and First Hawaiian”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bay Commercial Bank	$138.09 million	2.27	$23.61 million	$2.10	13.67
First Hawaiian	$1.17 billion	2.61	$230.13 million	$2.05	12.00

First Hawaiian has higher revenue and earnings than Bay Commercial Bank. First Hawaiian is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bay Commercial Bank, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

First Hawaiian beats Bay Commercial Bank on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bay Commercial Bank

BayCom Corp operates as the bank holding company for United Business Bank that provides various financial services to small and mid-sized businesses, service professionals, and individuals. The company provides demand, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts. It offers commercial and multifamily real estate loans, including owner-occupied and investor real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans, such as equipment loans and working capital lines of credit; small business administration loans; construction and land loans; agriculture-related loans; and consumer loans comprising installment loans, unsecured and secured personal lines of credit, and overdraft protection. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, automated teller machine, remote deposit capture, night depository, courier, direct deposit, treasury management, wire transfer, automated clearing house, debit cards, cashier's and travelers checks, letters of credit, lockbox, positive pay, reverse positive pay, and account reconciliation services, as well as zero balance accounts and sweep accounts, including loan sweep. It operates through a network of full-service banking branches in Northern and Southern California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Custer, Delta, and Grand counties, Colorado; and Seattle, Washington and Central New Mexico. The company was formerly known as Bay Commercial Bank and changed its name to BayCom Corp in January 2017. BayCom Corp was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California.

About First Hawaiian

First Hawaiian, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for First Hawaiian Bank that provides a range of banking products and services to consumer and commercial customers in the United States. It operates in three segments: Retail Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury and Other. The company offers various deposit products, including checking, savings, and time deposit accounts, and other deposit accounts. It also provides residential and commercial mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit and loans, automobile loans and leases, secured and unsecured lines of credit, installment loans, small business loans and leases, and construction lending, as well as commercial lease and auto dealer financing. In addition, the company offers wealth management, personal installment, individual investment and financial planning, insurance protection, trust and estate, private banking, investment management, retirement planning, and merchant processing services, as well as consumer and commercial credit cards. The company was formerly known as BancWest Corporation and changed its name to First Hawaiian, Inc. in April 2016. First Hawaiian, Inc. was founded in 1858 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.