Head to Head Contrast: CVB Financial (NASDAQ:CVBF) & Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR)

CVB Financial (NASDAQ:CVBF) and Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

74.2% of CVB Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.4% of Sierra Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.4% of CVB Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.8% of Sierra Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CVB Financial and Sierra Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CVB Financial	$648.47 million	5.55	$209.30 million	$1.52	13.43
Sierra Bancorp	$201.98 million	2.48	$42.33 million	$3.43	11.17

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CVB Financial	32.05%	9.16%	1.34%
Sierra Bancorp	22.53%	12.67%	1.21%

Volatility and Risk

CVB Financial has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sierra Bancorp has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for CVB Financial and Sierra Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CVB Financial	0	1	3	0	2.75
Sierra Bancorp	0	3	2	0	2.40

CVB Financial presently has a consensus target price of $24.50, suggesting a potential upside of 20.04%. Sierra Bancorp has a consensus target price of $37.00, suggesting a potential downside of 3.42%. Given CVB Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe CVB Financial is more favorable than Sierra Bancorp.

Dividends

CVB Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Sierra Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. CVB Financial pays out 52.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sierra Bancorp pays out 30.3% 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.

Summary

CVB Financial beats Sierra Bancorp on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CVB Financial

CVB Financial Corp. operates as a bank holding company for Citizens Business Bank, a state-chartered bank that provides banking and financial services to small to mid-sized businesses and individuals. It offers checking, savings, money market, and time certificates of deposit products for business and personal accounts; and serves as a federal tax depository for business customers. The company also provides commercial lending products comprising lines of credit and other working capital financing, accounts receivable lending, and letters of credit; agriculture loans to finance the operating needs of wholesale dairy farm operations, cattle feeders, livestock raisers, and farmers; lease financing services for municipal governments; commercial real estate and construction loans; and consumer financing products, including automobile leasing and financing, lines of credit, credit cards, home mortgages, and home equity loans and lines of credit. In addition, it offers various specialized services, such as treasury management systems for monitoring cash flow, merchant card processing program, armored pick-up and delivery, payroll services, remote deposit capture, electronic funds transfers, wires and automated clearinghouse, and online account access. Further, the company provides trust services, such as fiduciary services, mutual funds, annuities, 401(k) plans, and individual investment accounts. CVB Financial Corp. was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Ontario, California.

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.