Analyzing BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) and Bay Commercial Bank (NASDAQ:BCML)

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) and Bay Commercial Bank (NASDAQ:BCML) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for BBVA Banco Frances and Bay Commercial Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BBVA Banco Frances	0	4	1	2	2.71
Bay Commercial Bank	1	2	1	0	2.00

BBVA Banco Frances presently has a consensus price target of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 22.47%. Bay Commercial Bank has a consensus price target of $34.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.67%. Given BBVA Banco Frances’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe BBVA Banco Frances is more favorable than Bay Commercial Bank.

Volatility & Risk

BBVA Banco Frances has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bay Commercial Bank has a beta of 0.28, indicating that its stock price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

66.2% of Bay Commercial Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Bay Commercial Bank shares are owned 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.

Dividends

BBVA Banco Frances pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. Bay Commercial Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. BBVA Banco Frances pays out 82.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Bay Commercial Bank pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Bay Commercial Bank has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. BBVA Banco Frances is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares BBVA Banco Frances and Bay Commercial Bank”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BBVA Banco Frances	$4.96 billion	0.62	$252.12 million	$1.02	14.81
Bay Commercial Bank	$141.48 million	2.31	$23.93 million	$1.20	24.93

BBVA Banco Frances has higher revenue and earnings than Bay Commercial Bank. BBVA Banco Frances is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bay Commercial Bank, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares BBVA Banco Frances and Bay Commercial Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BBVA Banco Frances	4.16%	7.56%	1.10%
Bay Commercial Bank	9.20%	6.98%	0.90%

Summary

BBVA Banco Frances beats Bay Commercial Bank on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BBVA Banco Frances

Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. The company provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards financing, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies. It also provides corporate and investment banking products and services, such as global transaction services; global markets solutions comprising risk management and securities brokerage; long-term financing products, including project finance and syndicated loans; and corporate finance services comprising mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets advisory services to corporations and multinational companies. The company was formerly known as BBVA Banco Francés S.A. and changed its name to Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. in July 2019. Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. was incorporated in 1886 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

About Bay Commercial Bank

BayCom Corp operates as the bank holding company for United Business Bank that provides various financial services to small and mid-sized businesses, service professionals, and individuals. The company provides demand, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts. It offers commercial and multifamily real estate loans, including owner-occupied and investor real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans, such as equipment loans and working capital lines of credit; small business administration loans; construction and land loans; agriculture-related loans; and consumer loans comprising installment loans, unsecured and secured personal lines of credit, and overdraft protection. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, automated teller machine, remote deposit capture, night depository, courier, direct deposit, treasury management, wire transfer, automated clearing house, debit cards, cashier's and travelers checks, letters of credit, lockbox, positive pay, reverse positive pay, and account reconciliation services, as well as zero balance accounts and sweep accounts, including loan sweep. It operates through a network of full-service banking branches in Northern and Southern California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Custer, Delta, and Grand counties, Colorado; and Seattle, Washington and Central New Mexico. The company was formerly known as Bay Commercial Bank and changed its name to BayCom Corp in January 2017. BayCom Corp was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California.