Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) vs. Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) Head to Head Analysis

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Hope Bancorp and Oak Valley Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hope Bancorp	1	4	2	0	2.14
Oak Valley Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00

Hope Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.53%. Given Hope Bancorp’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Hope Bancorp is more favorable than Oak Valley Bancorp.

Dividends

Hope Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Oak Valley Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.75 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Hope Bancorp pays out 53.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Oak Valley Bancorp pays out 27.0% 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. Oak Valley Bancorp has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.0% of Hope Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Hope Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Hope Bancorp has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.24, meaning that its stock price is 76% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Hope Bancorp and Oak Valley Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hope Bancorp	$967.63 million	1.72	$61.59 million	$1.04	12.52
Oak Valley Bancorp	$95.04 million	3.05	$23.91 million	$2.78	12.38

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hope Bancorp	12.90%	5.97%	0.72%
Oak Valley Bancorp	23.63%	11.29%	1.16%

Summary

Oak Valley Bancorp beats Hope Bancorp on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hope Bancorp

Hope Bancorp, Inc. is the bank holding company for Bank of Hope, a commercial bank headquartered in Los Angeles. Bank of Hope was formed in 2016 through the merger of BBCN Bank and Wilshire Bank, bringing together institutions with roots in serving Korean-American communities. The bank provides deposit accounts, commercial and consumer lending, and other banking services to individuals and businesses. Its offerings include commercial real estate and business loans, small-business lending, treasury management, and online and mobile banking.

About Oak Valley Bancorp

Oak Valley Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Oakdale, California. Its principal subsidiary, Oak Valley Community Bank, provides banking services to individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations. The bank offers business and personal deposit accounts, commercial and real estate lending, agricultural financing, cash-management services and other customary community-banking products. Its lending supports needs such as business operations, property purchases and development. Oak Valley Community Bank serves communities in California’s Central Valley, Sacramento region and Eastern Sierra.