Head-To-Head Comparison: Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) & M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB)

Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) and M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Risk and 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, M&T Bank has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and M&T Bank”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oak Valley Bancorp	$95.04 million	3.00	$23.91 million	$2.82	12.01
M&T Bank	$9.83 billion	3.67	$2.85 billion	$18.94	13.02

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

Dividends

Oak Valley Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.75 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. M&T Bank pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Oak Valley Bancorp pays out 26.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. M&T Bank pays out 31.7% 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 raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.7% of M&T Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of M&T Bank shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and M&T Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oak Valley Bancorp	24.80%	11.49%	1.17%
M&T Bank	22.72%	11.80%	1.42%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Oak Valley Bancorp and M&T 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
M&T Bank	1	14	7	0	2.27

M&T Bank has a consensus price target of $253.53, indicating a potential upside of 2.81%. Given M&T Bank’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe M&T Bank is more favorable than Oak Valley Bancorp.

Summary

M&T Bank beats Oak Valley Bancorp on 12 of the 17 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 M&T Bank

M&T Bank Corp. operates as a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of retail and commercial banking, trust, wealth management, and investment services. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Bank, Retail Bank, Institutional Services and Wealth Management, and All Other. The Commercial Bank segment offers a wide range of credit products and banking services to middle-market and large commercial customers, mainly within the markets served by the company. The Retail Bank segment refers to the services to consumers and small businesses through the company’s branch network and several other delivery channels such as telephone banking, internet banking, and ATMs. The Institutional Services and Wealth Management segment relates to helping high net worth individuals, institutions, and families grow, preserve, and transfer wealth. The All Other segment reflects other activities of the company that are not directly attributable to the reported segments. The company was founded on August 30, 1856 and is headquartered in Buffalo, NY.