FirstSun Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSUN) versus First Western Financial (NASDAQ:MYFW) Financial Analysis

First Western Financial (NASDAQ:MYFW) and FirstSun Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSUN) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for First Western Financial and FirstSun Capital Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Western Financial	0	3	2	0	2.40
FirstSun Capital Bancorp	0	1	3	0	2.75

First Western Financial presently has a consensus price target of $24.33, indicating a potential downside of 9.24%. FirstSun Capital Bancorp has a consensus price target of $43.33, indicating a potential upside of 15.16%. Given FirstSun Capital Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe FirstSun Capital Bancorp is more favorable than First Western Financial.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

60.3% of First Western Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.5% of First Western Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of FirstSun Capital Bancorp 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.

Profitability

This table compares First Western Financial and FirstSun Capital Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Western Financial	6.91%	4.91%	0.42%
FirstSun Capital Bancorp	15.94%	9.00%	1.17%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares First Western Financial and FirstSun Capital Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Western Financial	$180.33 million	1.44	$8.47 million	$1.29	20.78
FirstSun Capital Bancorp	$549.33 million	1.91	$75.63 million	$3.16	11.91

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

Volatility and Risk

First Western Financial has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstSun Capital Bancorp has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

FirstSun Capital Bancorp beats First Western Financial on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About First Western Financial

First Western Financial, Inc., a financial holding company, provides wealth advisory, private baking, personal trust, investment management, mortgage lending, and institutional asset management services. The company operates through two segments: Wealth Management and Mortgage. The Wealth Management segment provides deposit, loan, life insurance, and trust and investment management advisory products and services. The Mortgage segment engages in soliciting, originating, and selling mortgage loans into the secondary market. It serves entrepreneurs, professionals, high net worth individuals or families, and business and philanthropic organizations. First Western Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

About FirstSun Capital Bancorp

FirstSun Capital Bancorp engages in the provision of commercial banking services. It operates through the following segments: Banking, Mortgage Operations, and Corporate. The Banking segment consists of loans and provides deposits and fee-based services to consumer, business, and mortgage lending customers. The Mortgage Operations segment originates, sells, services, and manages market risk from changes in interest rates on one-to-four family residential mortgage loans to sell and hold. The company is founded on November 9, 1981 headquartered in Denver, CO.