Critical Review: Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) & Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI)

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) and Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Houlihan Lokey pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Community West Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Houlihan Lokey pays out 45.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Community West Bancshares pays out 22.2% 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. Houlihan Lokey has increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years. Houlihan Lokey is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Houlihan Lokey and Community West Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Houlihan Lokey	16.26%	22.88%	13.33%
Community West Bancshares	20.77%	10.44%	1.15%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Houlihan Lokey and Community West Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Houlihan Lokey	0	5	5	0	2.50
Community West Bancshares	0	2	3	0	2.60

Houlihan Lokey currently has a consensus price target of $180.50, suggesting a potential upside of 29.13%. Community West Bancshares has a consensus price target of $28.17, suggesting a potential upside of 4.01%. Given Houlihan Lokey’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Houlihan Lokey is more favorable than Community West Bancshares.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.1% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.8% of Community West Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.8% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of Community West Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Houlihan Lokey and Community West Bancshares”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Houlihan Lokey	$2.62 billion	3.69	$425.70 million	$6.22	22.47
Community West Bancshares	$196.20 million	3.74	$38.17 million	$2.16	12.54

Houlihan Lokey has higher revenue and earnings than Community West Bancshares. Community West Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Houlihan Lokey, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Houlihan Lokey has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Community West Bancshares has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Houlihan Lokey beats Community West Bancshares on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Houlihan Lokey

Houlihan Lokey, Inc., an investment banking company, provides merger and acquisition (M&A), capital market, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory services worldwide. It operates in three segments: Corporate Finance, Financial Restructuring, and Financial and Valuation Advisory. The Corporate Finance segment offers general financial advisory services; and advises public and private institutions on buy-side and sell-side transactions, leveraged loans, private mezzanine debt, high-yield debt, initial public offerings, follow-ons, convertibles, equity private placements, private equity, and liability management transactions, as well as advise financial sponsors on various transactions. The Financial Restructuring segment advises debtors, creditors, and other parties-in-interest related to recapitalization/deleveraging transactions. It also provides a range of advisory services, including structuring, negotiation, and confirmation of plans of reorganization; structuring and analysis of exchange offers; corporate viability assessment; dispute resolution and expert testimony; and procuring debtor-in-possession financing. The Financial and Valuation Advisory segment offers valuations of various assets, such as companies, illiquid debt and equity securities, and intellectual property. It also provides fairness opinions in connection with M&A and other transactions, solvency opinions in connection with corporate spin-offs and dividend recapitalizations, and other types of financial opinions. In addition, this segment offers dispute resolution services. It serves corporations, financial sponsors, and government agencies. The company was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Community West Bancshares

Community West Bancshares operates as the bank holding company for Community West Bank, N.A. that provides various financial products and services in California. The company offers deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and fixed rate and fixed maturity certificates of deposits; and cash management products. It also provides commercial, commercial real estate, consumer, manufactured housing, and small business administration loans, as well as agricultural loans for real estate and operating lines; home equity lines of credit collateralized by residential real estate; single family real estate loans; and installment loans consisting of automobile and general-purpose loans. The company serves small to medium-sized businesses and their owners, professionals, high-net worth individuals, and non-profit organizations. Community West Bancshares was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Goleta, California.