Central Plains Bancshares (NASDAQ:CPBI) & MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG) Critical Comparison

MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG) and Central Plains Bancshares (NASDAQ:CPBI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for MidWestOne Financial Group and Central Plains Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MidWestOne Financial Group	0	4	1	0	2.20
Central Plains Bancshares	0	1	0	0	2.00

MidWestOne Financial Group presently has a consensus price target of $40.50, indicating a potential downside of 17.87%. Given MidWestOne Financial Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe MidWestOne Financial Group is more favorable than Central Plains Bancshares.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

65.4% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.3% of Central Plains Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.6% of Central Plains Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

MidWestOne Financial Group has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Central Plains Bancshares has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its stock price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares MidWestOne Financial Group and Central Plains Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MidWestOne Financial Group	16.66%	10.22%	0.96%
Central Plains Bancshares	13.11%	4.59%	0.76%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares MidWestOne Financial Group and Central Plains Bancshares”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MidWestOne Financial Group	$238.84 million	4.26	-$60.29 million	$2.81	17.55
Central Plains Bancshares	$27.31 million	2.74	$3.65 million	$1.03	17.25

Central Plains Bancshares has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MidWestOne Financial Group. Central Plains Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MidWestOne Financial Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

MidWestOne Financial Group beats Central Plains Bancshares on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MidWestOne Financial Group

MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for MidWestOne Bank that provides commercial and retail banking products and services to individuals, businesses, governmental units, and institutional customers. It offers range of deposit products, including noninterest bearing and interest bearing demand deposits, savings, money market, and time deposits accounts. The company also provides commercial, real estate, agricultural, credit card, and consumer loans; and financing arrangements, such as brokered deposits, term debt, subordinated debt, and equity. In addition, it offers trust and investment services comprising administering estates, trusts, and conservatorships; property and farm management, investment advisory, retail securities brokerage, financial planning, and custodial services; and licensed brokers services. Further, the company provides online and mobile banking, debit cards, automated teller machines, and safe deposit boxes. MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa.

About Central Plains Bancshares

Central Plains Bancshares, Inc. focuses on providing various banking products and services to retail customers, and small and medium-sized commercial customers in Nebraska, the United States. It offers checking accounts, savings accounts, and certificate of deposit accounts. The company also provides one- to four-family residential mortgage loans secured by properties, as well as commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial loans, multi-family residential real estate loans, construction and land development loans, agricultural real estate and non-real estate loans, and consumer loans. In addition, it offers electronic banking services, including mobile banking, on-line banking and bill pay, and electronic funds transfer. The company was incorporated in 2023 and is based in Grand Island, Nebraska.