Agri Bank China (OTCMKTS:ACGBY) and Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) Head to Head Comparison

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) and Agri Bank China (OTCMKTS:ACGBY) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

55.4% of Sierra Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.8% of Sierra Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Sierra Bancorp has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Agri Bank China has a beta of 0.1, suggesting that its share price is 90% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sierra Bancorp	22.37%	12.38%	1.20%
Agri Bank China	21.51%	9.38%	0.60%

Dividends

Sierra Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Agri Bank China pays an annual dividend of $0.73 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Sierra Bancorp pays out 31.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Agri Bank China pays out 25.3% 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 increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Agri Bank China is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Sierra Bancorp and Agri Bank China, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sierra Bancorp	0	3	2	0	2.40
Agri Bank China	0	2	0	0	2.00

Sierra Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $38.67, suggesting a potential downside of 0.50%. Given Sierra Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Sierra Bancorp is more favorable than Agri Bank China.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Sierra Bancorp and Agri Bank China”s top-line 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	2.49	$42.33 million	$3.42	11.36
Agri Bank China	$188.76 billion	1.54	$40.48 billion	$2.89	7.20

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

Summary

Sierra Bancorp beats Agri Bank China on 13 of the 17 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 Agri Bank China

Agricultural Bank of China Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides banking products and services. The company operates through Corporate Banking, Personal Banking, and Treasury Operations segments. It offers demand, personal call, foreign currency call, time or demand optional, foreign exchange call, foreign exchange time, savings, agreed term, and negotiated deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit; and loans, including housing, consumer, business, fixed asset, working capital, real estate, and entrusted syndicated loans, as well as trade finances, guarantees and commitments, and loans with custody of export rebates accounts. The company provides credit card, debit card, payment and settlement, private banking, cash management, investment banking, custody, financial market, and financial institution services, as well as trading and wealth management services; and personal fund collection and automatic transfer services. In addition, it offers agro-related personal and corporate banking products and services; telephone, mobile, self-service, television, and SMS banking services; financial leasing services; fund management services; asset custodian services; and insurance and reinsurance related products and services. The company operates domestic branches, including specialized institutions, training institutes, tier-1 branches, tier-2 branches, tier-1 sub-branches, foundation-level branch outlets and other establishments; overseas branches in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, New York, Dubai International Financial Centre, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Sydney, Luxemburg, Dubai, London, Macao, and Hanoi; and overseas representative offices in Vancouver, Taipei, Sao Paulo, and Dushanbe. The company was founded in 1951 and is based in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.