Comparing United Security Bancshares (NASDAQ:UBFO) & Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC)

United Security Bancshares (NASDAQ:UBFO) and Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for United Security Bancshares and Plumas Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Security Bancshares	0	0	1	0	3.00
Plumas Bancorp	0	0	3	0	3.00

Plumas Bancorp has a consensus price target of $55.50, indicating a potential upside of 3.91%. Given Plumas Bancorp’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Plumas Bancorp is more favorable than United Security Bancshares.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

30.9% of United Security Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.7% of Plumas Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.1% of United Security Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.7% of Plumas Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares United Security Bancshares and Plumas Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Security Bancshares	18.65%	9.11%	1.01%
Plumas Bancorp	26.40%	16.28%	1.86%

Risk and Volatility

United Security Bancshares has a beta of 0.35, suggesting that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Plumas Bancorp has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

United Security Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Plumas Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. United Security Bancshares pays out 67.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Plumas Bancorp pays out 29.1% 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. United Security Bancshares has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Plumas Bancorp has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. United Security Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares United Security Bancshares and Plumas Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Security Bancshares	$65.90 million	3.04	$12.29 million	$0.71	16.07
Plumas Bancorp	$112.17 million	3.31	$29.62 million	$4.54	11.76

Plumas Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than United Security Bancshares. Plumas Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United Security Bancshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Plumas Bancorp beats United Security Bancshares on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Security Bancshares

United Security Bancshares operates as the bank holding company for United Security Bank, a state-chartered bank that provides a range of commercial banking services to the business and professional community, and individuals in California. The company accepts various deposit products, including personal and business checking accounts, savings accounts, interest-bearing negotiable order of withdrawal accounts, money market accounts, and time certificates of deposit. It also provides real estate mortgage, commercial and industrial, real estate construction and development, and consumer loans, as well as agricultural, installment, and student loans. In addition, the company offers online and mobile banking, safe deposit boxes, wire transfers, payroll direct deposit, cashier's check, cash management, and foreign draft services, as well as interactive teller machines; and person-to-person and bank-to-bank transfers for consumer customers. United Security Bancshares was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Fresno, California.

About Plumas Bancorp

Plumas Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for the Plumas Bank that provides various banking products and services for small and middle market businesses, and individuals in Northeastern California and Northwestern Nevada. The company accepts various deposits, such as checking, money market checking, business sweep, public funds sweep, savings, time deposit, and retirement accounts. Its loan portfolio comprises of term real estate, commercial, and industrial term loans; government-guaranteed and agricultural loans, as well as credit lines; consumer, automobile, and home equity loans; land development and construction loans; and small business administration loans. In addition, the company provides remote deposit, telephone and mobile banking, internet banking with bill-pay options, cashier's check, bank-by-mail, automated teller machine, night depository, safe deposit box, direct deposit, electronic funds transfer, and other customary banking services. Plumas Bancorp was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.