Analyzing Southern California Bancorp (NASDAQ:BCAL) & Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ:ONB)

Southern California Bancorp (NASDAQ:BCAL) and Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ:ONB) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

55.4% of Southern California Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of Old National Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 19.6% of Southern California Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Old National Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Southern California Bancorp and Old National Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern California Bancorp	$90.64 million	2.87	$25.91 million	$1.21	11.61
Old National Bancorp	$1.86 billion	3.21	$581.99 million	$1.85	10.11

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

Profitability

This table compares Southern California Bancorp and Old National Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern California Bancorp	12.34%	5.92%	0.74%
Old National Bancorp	17.93%	14.38%	1.12%

Volatility & Risk

Southern California Bancorp has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Old National Bancorp has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Southern California Bancorp and Old National Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern California Bancorp	0	1	1	0	2.50
Old National Bancorp	0	1	7	0	2.88

Southern California Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $19.00, indicating a potential upside of 35.23%. Old National Bancorp has a consensus target price of $19.88, indicating a potential upside of 6.23%. Given Southern California Bancorp’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Southern California Bancorp is more favorable than Old National Bancorp.

Summary

Old National Bancorp beats Southern California Bancorp on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Southern 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.

About Old National Bancorp

Old National Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Old National Bank that provides various financial services to individual and commercial customers in the United States. It accepts deposit accounts, including noninterest-bearing demand, interest-bearing checking, negotiable order of withdrawal, savings and money market, and time deposits; and offers loans, such as home equity lines of credit, residential real estate loans, consumer loans, commercial loans, commercial real estate loans, agricultural loans, letters of credit, and lease financing. The company also provides debit and automated teller machine cards, telephone access, online banking, and other electronic and mobile banking services; cash management, private banking, brokerage, trust, investment advisory, and other traditional banking services; wealth management, investment, and foreign currency services; and treasury management, merchant, and capital markets services, as well as community development lending and equity investment solutions. The company was founded in 1834 and is headquartered in Evansville, Indiana.