Reviewing California BanCorp (NASDAQ:BCAL) and SB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SBFG)

California BanCorp (NASDAQ:BCAL) and SB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SBFG) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for California BanCorp and SB Financial Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
California BanCorp	0	1	5	0	2.83
SB Financial Group	0	2	1	0	2.33

California BanCorp presently has a consensus target price of $24.50, indicating a potential upside of 12.44%. SB Financial Group has a consensus target price of $32.00, indicating a potential upside of 4.85%. Given California BanCorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe California BanCorp is more favorable than SB Financial Group.

Volatility & Risk

California BanCorp has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SB Financial Group has a beta of 0.18, suggesting that its stock price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.4% of California BanCorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.7% of SB Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 8.1% of California BanCorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of SB Financial Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares California BanCorp and SB Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
California BanCorp	25.47%	10.09%	1.45%
SB Financial Group	17.17%	11.47%	1.04%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares California BanCorp and SB Financial Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
California BanCorp	$237.07 million	2.96	$63.06 million	$1.79	12.17
SB Financial Group	$91.03 million	2.10	$13.97 million	$2.67	11.43

California BanCorp has higher revenue and earnings than SB Financial Group. SB Financial Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than California BanCorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

California BanCorp pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. SB Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. California BanCorp pays out 26.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SB Financial Group pays out 24.0% 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. SB Financial Group has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Summary

California BanCorp beats SB Financial Group on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About California BanCorp

Southern California Bancorp operates as the holding company for Bank of Southern California, N.A. that provides various financial products to individuals, professionals, and small-to medium-sized businesses. The company offers checking, personal and business savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also provides home equity lines of credit, business loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate and construction loans, small business administration loans, letters of credit, and personal and business credit cards. In addition, the company provides cash vault, sweep accounts, and remote deposit capture services; online and mobile banking services; courier service; lockbox services; and merchant services. It operates branches in San Diego, Orange, Ventura, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties, as well as the Inland Empire. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About SB Financial Group

SB Financial Group, Inc. operates as the financial holding company for the State Bank and Trust Company that provides a range of commercial banking and wealth management services to individual and corporate customers primarily in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. It offers checking, savings, money market accounts, as well as time certificates of deposit; and commercial, consumer, agricultural, and residential mortgage loans. The company also provides automatic teller machine, personal and corporate trust, commercial leasing, bank credit card, safe deposit box rental, internet banking, private client group, and other personalized banking products and services; and various trust and financial services comprising asset management services for individuals and corporate employee benefit plans, as well as brokerage services. In addition, it sells insurance products to retail and commercial customers. The company was formerly known as Rurban Financial Corp. and changed its name to SB Financial Group, Inc. in April 2013. SB Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1902 and is based in Defiance, Ohio.