Critical Review: CrossFirst Bankshares (NASDAQ:CFB) versus Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY)

CrossFirst Bankshares (NASDAQ:CFB) and Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for CrossFirst Bankshares and Oak Valley Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CrossFirst Bankshares	0	0	4	0	3.00
Oak Valley Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

CrossFirst Bankshares currently has a consensus price target of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 22.11%. Given CrossFirst Bankshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe CrossFirst Bankshares is more favorable than Oak Valley Bancorp.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

56.3% of CrossFirst Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 9.3% of CrossFirst Bankshares shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.3% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CrossFirst Bankshares	14.52%	10.72%	1.04%
Oak Valley Bancorp	28.03%	14.38%	1.34%

Volatility and Risk

CrossFirst Bankshares has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.34, suggesting that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CrossFirst Bankshares and Oak Valley Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CrossFirst Bankshares	$254.34 million	2.94	$66.67 million	$1.47	10.31
Oak Valley Bancorp	$76.98 million	3.18	$30.85 million	$3.00	9.75

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

Summary

CrossFirst Bankshares beats Oak Valley Bancorp on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CrossFirst Bankshares

CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for CrossFirst Bank that provides various banking and financial services to businesses, business owners, professionals, and its personal networks. The company offers commercial and industrial loans, including enterprise value lending; commercial real estate loans; construction and development loans, such as home builder lending; residential real estate, multifamily real estate, energy, SBA, and consumer loans; and credit cards. It also provides deposit banking products, including personal and business checking and savings accounts; treasury management services; money market accounts; certificates of deposits; negotiable order of withdrawal accounts; automated teller machine access; and mobile banking and international banking services, as well as non-interest-bearing demand deposits and interest-bearing deposits, including transaction accounts. In addition, the company acquires brokered deposits, internet subscription certificates of deposit, and reciprocal deposits. Further, it holds investments in marketable securities. The company serves its clients though branch network, as well as digital banking products. It has full-service banking offices in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Leawood, Kansas.

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.