Comparing Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) and Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) and Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Bank OZK and Summit State Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bank OZK	3	5	3	0	2.00
Summit State Bank	0	1	0	0	2.00

Bank OZK presently has a consensus price target of $56.88, indicating a potential upside of 15.86%. Given Bank OZK’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Bank OZK is more favorable than Summit State Bank.

Risk and Volatility

Bank OZK has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Summit State Bank has a beta of 0.2, meaning that its share price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

86.2% of Bank OZK shares are held by institutional investors. 6.7% of Bank OZK shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bank OZK	24.95%	11.87%	1.67%
Summit State Bank	3.87%	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Bank OZK and Summit State Bank”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bank OZK	$2.81 billion	1.96	$715.48 million	$6.05	8.11
Summit State Bank	$58.82 million	1.41	$6.80 million	$0.34	35.88

Bank OZK has higher revenue and earnings than Summit State Bank. Bank OZK 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.

Summary

Bank OZK beats Summit State Bank on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bank OZK

Bank OZK provides various retail and commercial banking services for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers deposit services, including non-interest bearing checking, interest bearing transaction, business sweep, savings, money market, individual retirement, and other accounts, as well as time and reciprocal deposits. It also provides trust and wealth services, such as personal trusts, custodial accounts, investment management accounts, and retirement accounts, as well as corporate trust services, including trustee, paying agent and registered transfer agent services, and other related services. In addition, the company offers treasury management services comprising automated clearing house, wire transfer, transaction reporting, wholesale lockbox, remote deposit capture, automated credit line transfer, reconciliation, positive pay, commercial card, and other services, as well as zero balance and investment sweep accounts. Further, it provides real estate, consumer, small business, indirect recreational vehicle and marine, equipment, agricultural, commercial and industrial, government guaranteed, lines of credit, homebuilder, and affordable housing loans; lender and structured, business aviation, and subscription financing services; and mortgage and other lending products. Additionally, the company offers ATMs; telephone, online, and mobile banking services; credit and debit cards; safe deposit boxes; and other products and services. The company was formerly known as Bank of the Ozarks and changed its name to Bank OZK in July 2018. Bank OZK was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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.