Analyzing Avidbank (OTCMKTS:AVBH) and WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD)

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) and Avidbank (OTCMKTS:AVBH) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.7% of WaFd shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.9% of Avidbank shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of WaFd shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

WaFd has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avidbank has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares WaFd and Avidbank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WaFd	17.45%	8.67%	0.87%
Avidbank	14.31%	N/A	N/A

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares WaFd and Avidbank”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WaFd	$1.41 billion	1.70	$226.07 million	$2.89	10.92
Avidbank	$30.93 million	10.49	$21.01 million	($2.01)	-14.75

WaFd has higher revenue and earnings than Avidbank. Avidbank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WaFd, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for WaFd and Avidbank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WaFd	0	5	0	0	2.00
Avidbank	0	0	0	0	0.00

WaFd presently has a consensus price target of $32.90, suggesting a potential upside of 4.23%. Given WaFd’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe WaFd is more favorable than Avidbank.

Summary

WaFd beats Avidbank on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WaFd

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts. It also provides single-family dwellings, construction, land acquisition and development, consumer lot, multi-family residential, commercial real estate, home equity, business, and consumer loans, as well as commercial and industrial loans. In addition, the company offers insurance brokerage services, such as individual and business insurance policies; holds and markets real estate properties; and debit and credit cards, as well as acts as the trustee. It serves consumers, mid-sized and large businesses, and owners and developers of commercial real estate. The company was formerly known as Washington Federal, Inc. and changed its name to WaFd, Inc in September 2023. WaFd, Inc was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Avidbank

Avidbank Holdings, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Avidbank that provides financial products and services to businesses and individuals in the Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco counties. The company offers business and personal deposit products, such as checking, money market, and savings accounts; and certificates of deposit. It also provides personal lending products, including secured and unsecured lines of credit, home equity lines of credit, remodel and new home construction loans, and term loans; corporate banking comprising working capital lines of credit, equipment loans, acquisition financing, shareholder buyouts, ESOP loans, and owner-occupied real estate loans; and commercial real estate lending, such as permanent loans and bridge financing products. In addition, the company offers construction lending products, including land acquisition loans, pre-development loans, construction spec SFD, owner-occupied SFD, condominiums, subdivision, unsecured business lines, real estate bridge loans, and RLOC real estate secured loans. Further, it provides various financing solutions, such as fund finance, structured finance, venture lending, asset-based lending, and sponsor finance. Additionally, the company offers various services, such as automated clearing house payments and collections, bill pay, positive pay, wire transfer, lockbox, merchant, remote deposit capture, risk and fraud analytics services, ATM/debit cards, credit cards, business courier, cash management, and complimentary notary services. Furthermore, it offers online and mobile banking services. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.