Avidbank (OTCMKTS:AVBH) vs. WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Financial Comparison

Avidbank (OTCMKTS:AVBH) and WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Avidbank and WaFd’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avidbank	14.31%	N/A	N/A
WaFd	17.45%	8.67%	0.87%

Volatility & Risk

Avidbank has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WaFd has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

15.9% of Avidbank shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of WaFd shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of WaFd shares are held by company 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Avidbank and WaFd, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avidbank	0	0	0	0	0.00
WaFd	0	5	0	0	2.00

WaFd has a consensus price target of $32.90, suggesting a potential upside of 0.98%. Given WaFd’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe WaFd is more favorable than Avidbank.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Avidbank and WaFd”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Avidbank	$30.93 million	10.58	$21.01 million	($2.01)	-14.86
WaFd	$1.41 billion	1.75	$226.07 million	$2.89	11.27

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

Summary

WaFd beats Avidbank on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Avidbank

Avidbank Holdings, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Avidbank that provides financial products and services to businesses and individuals in the Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco counties. The company offers business and personal deposit products, such as checking, money market, and savings accounts; and certificates of deposit. It also provides personal lending products, including secured and unsecured lines of credit, home equity lines of credit, remodel and new home construction loans, and term loans; corporate banking comprising working capital lines of credit, equipment loans, acquisition financing, shareholder buyouts, ESOP loans, and owner-occupied real estate loans; and commercial real estate lending, such as permanent loans and bridge financing products. In addition, the company offers construction lending products, including land acquisition loans, pre-development loans, construction spec SFD, owner-occupied SFD, condominiums, subdivision, unsecured business lines, real estate bridge loans, and RLOC real estate secured loans. Further, it provides various financing solutions, such as fund finance, structured finance, venture lending, asset-based lending, and sponsor finance. Additionally, the company offers various services, such as automated clearing house payments and collections, bill pay, positive pay, wire transfer, lockbox, merchant, remote deposit capture, risk and fraud analytics services, ATM/debit cards, credit cards, business courier, cash management, and complimentary notary services. Furthermore, it offers online and mobile banking services. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About WaFd

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts. It also provides single-family dwellings, construction, land acquisition and development, consumer lot, multi-family residential, commercial real estate, home equity, business, and consumer loans, as well as commercial and industrial loans. In addition, the company offers insurance brokerage services, such as individual and business insurance policies; holds and markets real estate properties; and debit and credit cards, as well as acts as the trustee. It serves consumers, mid-sized and large businesses, and owners and developers of commercial real estate. The company was formerly known as Washington Federal, Inc. and changed its name to WaFd, Inc in September 2023. WaFd, Inc was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.