Contrasting Bridgewater Bancshares (NASDAQ:BWB) & Mvb Financial (NASDAQ:MVBF)

Mvb Financial (NASDAQ:MVBF) and Bridgewater Bancshares (NASDAQ:BWB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

52.7% of Mvb Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.8% of Bridgewater Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.7% of Mvb Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.3% of Bridgewater Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Mvb Financial and Bridgewater Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mvb Financial	1	0	6	0	2.71
Bridgewater Bancshares	0	3	2	0	2.40

Mvb Financial presently has a consensus price target of $31.50, indicating a potential upside of 15.17%. Bridgewater Bancshares has a consensus price target of $20.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.39%. Given Mvb Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Mvb Financial is more favorable than Bridgewater Bancshares.

Volatility and Risk

Mvb Financial has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bridgewater Bancshares has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Mvb Financial and Bridgewater Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mvb Financial	15.34%	3.81%	0.38%
Bridgewater Bancshares	14.52%	10.27%	0.80%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Mvb Financial and Bridgewater Bancshares”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mvb Financial	$228.76 million	1.50	$20.09 million	$2.46	11.12
Bridgewater Bancshares	$253.27 million	2.01	$32.83 million	$1.33	13.85

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

Summary

Bridgewater Bancshares beats Mvb Financial on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mvb Financial

MVB Financial Corp. operates as bank holding company for MVB Bank, Inc that provides financial services to individuals and corporate clients. The company operates through three segments: CoRe Banking, Mortgage Banking, and The Financial Holding Company. It offers various demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit; and commercial, consumer, and real estate mortgage loans, as well as lines of credit. The company also provides debit cards; cashier's checks; safe deposit rental facilities; and non-deposit investment services, as well as financial technology (Fintech) banking services. In addition, it offers fintech solutions for the gaming, payments, banking-as-a-service, and digital asset sectors; fraud prevention services for merchants, credit agencies, Fintech companies, and other vendors; and digital products and web and mobile applications for forward-thinking community banks, credit unions, digital banks, and Fintech companies. It operates full-service branches in West Virginia and Virginia. MVB Financial Corp. was founded in 1997 and is based in Fairmont, West Virginia.

About Bridgewater Bancshares

Bridgewater Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Bridgewater Bank that provides banking products and services to commercial real estate investors, entrepreneurs, business clients, and individuals in the United States. The company provides savings and money market accounts, demand deposits, time and brokered deposits, and interest and noninterest bearing transaction, as well as certificates of deposit. It offers commercial loans to sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and other business enterprises to finance working capital, capital investment, or for other business related purposes; paycheck protection program loans; construction and land development loans; 1-4 family mortgage loans; multifamily lending products; owner and non-owner occupied commercial real estate loans; and consumer and other loans. In addition, the company online, mobile, and direct banking services. Bridgewater Bancshares, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota.