Reviewing California BanCorp (NASDAQ:BCAL) and Civista Bancshares (NASDAQ:CIVB)

Civista Bancshares (NASDAQ:CIVB) and California BanCorp (NASDAQ:BCAL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Civista Bancshares and California BanCorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Civista Bancshares	0	3	3	0	2.50
California BanCorp	0	1	5	0	2.83

Civista Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $30.25, suggesting a potential upside of 4.38%. California BanCorp has a consensus target price of $24.50, suggesting a potential upside of 11.97%. Given California BanCorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe California BanCorp is more favorable than Civista Bancshares.

Profitability

This table compares Civista Bancshares and California BanCorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Civista Bancshares	21.82%	10.97%	1.41%
California BanCorp	25.47%	10.09%	1.45%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Civista Bancshares and California BanCorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Civista Bancshares	$254.95 million	2.36	$46.21 million	$2.79	10.39
California BanCorp	$237.07 million	2.97	$63.06 million	$1.79	12.22

California BanCorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Civista Bancshares. Civista Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than California BanCorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Civista Bancshares has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California BanCorp has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Civista Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. California BanCorp pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Civista Bancshares pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. California BanCorp pays out 26.8% 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. Civista Bancshares has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Civista Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.1% of Civista Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.4% of California BanCorp shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Civista Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of California BanCorp 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.

Summary

California BanCorp beats Civista Bancshares on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Civista Bancshares

Civista Bancshares, Inc. operates as the financial holding company for Civista Bank that provides community banking services. It collects a range of customer deposits; and offers commercial and agriculture, commercial and residential real estate, farm real estate, real estate construction, consumer, and other loans, as well as letters of credit. The company also holds and manages securities portfolio; leases general equipment; and provides captive insurance products. It operates in North Central, West Central, South Western Ohio, South Eastern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky. The company was formerly known as First Citizens Banc Corp and changed its name to Civista Bancshares, Inc. in May 2015. Civista Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio.

About California BanCorp

Southern California Bancorp operates as the holding company for Bank of Southern California, N.A. that provides various financial products to individuals, professionals, and small-to medium-sized businesses. The company offers checking, personal and business savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also provides home equity lines of credit, business loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate and construction loans, small business administration loans, letters of credit, and personal and business credit cards. In addition, the company provides cash vault, sweep accounts, and remote deposit capture services; online and mobile banking services; courier service; lockbox services; and merchant services. It operates branches in San Diego, Orange, Ventura, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties, as well as the Inland Empire. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.