Head-To-Head Contrast: RBB Bancorp (NASDAQ:RBB) and Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR)

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) and RBB Bancorp (NASDAQ:RBB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Sierra Bancorp and RBB Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sierra Bancorp	0	1	2	1	3.00
RBB Bancorp	0	4	0	0	2.00

Sierra Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $38.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.00%. RBB Bancorp has a consensus price target of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.33%. Given Sierra Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Sierra Bancorp is more favorable than RBB Bancorp.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sierra Bancorp and RBB Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sierra Bancorp	$201.98 million	2.37	$42.33 million	$3.12	11.53
RBB Bancorp	$238.00 million	1.54	$31.95 million	$1.83	11.75

Sierra Bancorp has higher earnings, but lower revenue than RBB Bancorp. Sierra Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than RBB Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Sierra Bancorp and RBB Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sierra Bancorp	20.96%	11.90%	1.15%
RBB Bancorp	13.42%	6.21%	0.78%

Dividends

Sierra Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. RBB Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Sierra Bancorp pays out 33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. RBB Bancorp pays out 35.0% 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. Sierra Bancorp has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

55.4% of Sierra Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.1% of RBB Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.6% of Sierra Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of RBB Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Sierra Bancorp has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, RBB Bancorp has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sierra Bancorp beats RBB Bancorp on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sierra Bancorp

Sierra Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Bank of the Sierra that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses in California. It accepts various deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market demand accounts, time deposits, retirement accounts, and sweep accounts. The company's loan products include agricultural, commercial, consumer, real estate, construction, and mortgage loans. It also offers automated teller machines; electronic point-of-sale payment alternatives; online and automated telephone banking services; and remote deposit capture and automated payroll services for business customers. Sierra Bancorp was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Porterville, California.

About RBB Bancorp

RBB Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Royal Business Bank that provides various banking products and services to the Chinese-American, Korean-American, and other Asian-American communities. Its deposit products include checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also offers commercial and industrial lines of credit, term loans, mortgage warehouse lines, and international trade discounts; commercial real estate loans; residential, commercial, and land acquisition and development construction loans; small business administration loans; and single-family residential mortgage loans. In addition, it provides international letters of credit, SWIFT, export advisory, trade finance discount, and foreign exchange services; and remote deposit, e-banking, and mobile banking services. The company serves individuals, businesses, municipalities, and other entities. It operates branches in the Western region with branches in Los Angeles County, California; Orange County, California; Ventura County, California; Clark County, Nevada; Honolulu, Hawaii, as well as in Eastern region with branches in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, New York; Chicago, Illinois; and Edison, New Jersey. RBB Bancorp was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.