Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) and Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) Critical Comparison

Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) and Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and Summit State Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oak Valley Bancorp	24.80%	11.99%	1.20%
Summit State Bank	10.18%	N/A	N/A

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and Summit State Bank”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oak Valley Bancorp	$95.04 million	2.93	$23.91 million	$2.88	11.49
Summit State Bank	$58.82 million	1.59	$6.80 million	$0.89	15.54

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

Risk & Volatility

Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.21, suggesting that its share price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Summit State Bank has a beta of 0.18, suggesting that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Oak Valley Bancorp and Summit State Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oak Valley Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
Summit State Bank	0	1	0	0	2.00

Summary

Oak Valley Bancorp beats Summit State Bank on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oak Valley Bancorp

Oak Valley Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Oak Valley Community Bank that provides a range of commercial banking services to individuals and small to medium-sized businesses in the Central Valley and the Eastern Sierras. The company's deposits products include checking and savings, money market, health savings, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial real estate loans, commercial business lending and trade finance, and small business administration lending, as well as consumer loans, including automobile loans, home mortgages, credit lines, and other personal loans. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, remote deposit capture, merchant, night depository, extended hours, wire transfer of funds, note collection services, and automated teller machines. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Oakdale, California.

About Summit State Bank

Summit State Bank engages in providing an array of financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, their owners and employees, entrepreneurs, high net worth families, foundations, estates, and individual consumers. It specializes in business services, personal accounts, nonprofit programs, and mobile banking ranging from lending, checking, merchant, eBanking, automated teller machines, equity loans, and others. The company was founded on December 20, 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA.