Head to Head Survey: First Financial Bankshares (NASDAQ:FFIN) and Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY)

Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) and First Financial Bankshares (NASDAQ:FFIN) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Oak Valley Bancorp and First Financial Bankshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oak Valley Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
First Financial Bankshares	0	2	2	1	2.80

First Financial Bankshares has a consensus target price of $36.75, suggesting a potential upside of 5.15%. Given First Financial Bankshares’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe First Financial Bankshares is more favorable than Oak Valley Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and First Financial Bankshares’ 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%
First Financial Bankshares	31.03%	14.00%	1.76%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.8% of First Financial Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. 13.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of First Financial Bankshares shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Oak Valley Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.75 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. First Financial Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Oak Valley Bancorp pays out 26.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Financial Bankshares pays out 47.1% 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 and First Financial Bankshares has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. First Financial Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Oak Valley Bancorp and First Financial Bankshares”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oak Valley Bancorp	$83.84 million	3.38	$23.91 million	$2.82	11.95
First Financial Bankshares	$651.74 million	7.69	$253.58 million	$1.87	18.69

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

Risk & Volatility

Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.21, meaning that its share price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Financial Bankshares has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

First Financial Bankshares beats Oak Valley Bancorp on 14 of the 18 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 First Financial Bankshares

First Financial Bankshares, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides commercial banking products and services in Texas. The company offers checking, savings and time deposits; automated teller machines, drive-in, and night deposit services; safe deposit facilities, remote deposit capture, internet banking, mobile banking, payroll cards, funds transfer, and performing other customary commercial banking services; securities brokerage services; and trust and wealth management services, including wealth management, estates administration, oil and gas management, testamentary trusts, revocable and irrevocable trusts, and agency accounts. It also provides commercial and industrial, municipal, agricultural, construction and development, farm, residential, and consumer auto and non-auto, as well as non-owner occupied and owner occupied commercial real estate loans. In addition, the company offers advisory and specialized services related to asset management, investing, purchasing, advertising, public relations, and technology services. First Financial Bankshares, Inc. was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Abilene, Texas.