Private Bancorp of America (OTCMKTS:PBAM) and Pacific Valley Bancorp (OTCMKTS:PVBK) Critical Review

Pacific Valley Bancorp (OTCMKTS:PVBK) and Private Bancorp of America (OTCMKTS:PBAM) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Pacific Valley Bancorp and Private Bancorp of America, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pacific Valley Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Private Bancorp of America	0	1	1	1	3.00

Private Bancorp of America has a consensus price target of $74.00, suggesting a potential upside of 27.04%. Given Private Bancorp of America’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Private Bancorp of America is more favorable than Pacific Valley Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Pacific Valley Bancorp and Private Bancorp of America’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pacific Valley Bancorp	12.14%	N/A	N/A
Private Bancorp of America	24.04%	17.10%	1.66%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

2.8% of Pacific Valley Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.5% of Private Bancorp of America shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Pacific Valley Bancorp and Private Bancorp of America”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pacific Valley Bancorp	$30.26 million	1.93	$4.42 million	$0.79	13.61
Private Bancorp of America	$161.24 million	2.07	$35.82 million	$7.04	8.27

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

Risk and Volatility

Pacific Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.16, meaning that its share price is 84% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Private Bancorp of America has a beta of 0.1, meaning that its share price is 90% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Private Bancorp of America beats Pacific Valley Bancorp on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pacific Valley Bancorp

Pacific Valley Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Pacific Valley Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company offers personal and business banking, including checking accounts, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit; and online solutions, such as online and mobile banking, bill pay, remote deposit capture, positive pay, e-statements, and order checks. It also provides commercial or agriculture lines of credit, commercial or agriculture terms loans, commercial constructions loans, agriculture production lending, and government guaranteed loan programs; and debit card, incoming wire instructions, ATM locator, fraud prevention, identity theft, and FDIC insurance estimator services. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Salinas, California.

About Private Bancorp of America

Private Bancorp of America, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for CalPrivate Bank that provides banking products and services to individuals and businesses in California. The company offers checking and savings, money market, certificate of deposit, sweep, zero balance, and individual retirement accounts; unsecured lines of credit, personal credit lines, and term loans; additional services, such as direct deposits, online banking, ATM and debit cards, credit cards, savings/line of credit overdraft protection, and safe deposit boxes; and certificate of deposit account registry services. It also provides treasury management, merchant card, bill pay, positive pay, e-statement, remote deposit capture, ACH origination, wire transfer, electronic payments and collections, electronic check acceptance, account reconciliation, cash vault, and gift and business credit cards, as well as funds management services. In addition, the company offers term credit facilities and loans, equipment and business expansion loans, working capital lines of credit, commercial real estate financing, construction financing, letters of credit, business start-up loans, loans for business acquisition and partner buyouts, owner-occupied commercial real estate loans, equipment, furniture and fixture, and other loans; and CDARS And ICS products. Further, it provides wealth management and legal services. The company has offices in La Jolla, San Diego, Coronado, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Temecula, Mission Valley, and Redlands. Private Bancorp of America, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in La Jolla, California.