John Marshall Bancorp (NASDAQ:JMSB) versus Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) Critical Review

Risk and Volatility

Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, John Marshall Bancorp has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.1% of John Marshall Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.3% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.7% of John Marshall Bancorp 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.

Dividends

Oak Valley Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.45 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. John Marshall Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Oak Valley Bancorp pays out 15.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. John Marshall Bancorp pays out 21.0% 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. Oak Valley Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and John Marshall Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oak Valley Bancorp	28.03%	14.38%	1.34%
John Marshall Bancorp	15.13%	7.15%	0.75%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and John Marshall Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oak Valley Bancorp	$87.30 million	3.05	$30.85 million	$3.00	10.61
John Marshall Bancorp	$85.83 million	3.76	$5.16 million	$1.19	19.03

Oak Valley Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than John Marshall Bancorp. Oak Valley Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than John Marshall Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Oak Valley Bancorp beats John Marshall Bancorp on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oak Valley Bancorp

Oak Valley Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Oak Valley Community Bank that provides a range of commercial banking services to individuals and small to medium-sized businesses in the Central Valley and the Eastern Sierras. The company's deposits products include checking and savings, money market, health savings, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial real estate loans, commercial business lending and trade finance, and small business administration lending, as well as consumer loans, including automobile loans, home mortgages, credit lines, and other personal loans. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, remote deposit capture, merchant, night depository, extended hours, wire transfer of funds, note collection services, and automated teller machines. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Oakdale, California.

About John Marshall Bancorp

John Marshall Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for John Marshall Bank that provides banking products and financial services. The company accepts checking, demand, NOW, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It offers residential and commercial construction and development loans, commercial term, mortgage, commercial real estate, industrial loans, and other commercial lines of credit; debit and credit cards; and treasury and cash management, investment, business and personal insurance, remote deposit capture, deposit sweep and online and mobile banking services. The company serves small to medium-sized businesses, their owners and employees, professional corporations, non-profits, and individuals. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.