Reviewing Five Star Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSBC) and Suncrest Bank (OTCMKTS:SBKK)

Suncrest Bank (OTCMKTS:SBKK) and Five Star Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSBC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Suncrest Bank has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Five Star Bancorp has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Suncrest Bank and Five Star Bancorp’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Suncrest Bank	$46.73 million	4.92	$16.96 million	$1.37	13.56
Five Star Bancorp	$181.89 million	2.89	$47.73 million	$2.63	9.38

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

5.9% of Suncrest Bank shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 46.9% of Five Star Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 25.6% of Five Star Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Suncrest Bank and Five Star Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Suncrest Bank	0	0	0	0	N/A
Five Star Bancorp	0	1	2	0	2.67

Five Star Bancorp has a consensus target price of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.49%. Given Five Star Bancorp’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Five Star Bancorp is more favorable than Suncrest Bank.

Profitability

This table compares Suncrest Bank and Five Star Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Suncrest Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A
Five Star Bancorp	23.84%	16.12%	1.29%

Summary

Five Star Bancorp beats Suncrest Bank on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Suncrest Bank

Suncrest Bank engages in the provision of personal and commercial banking services. It provides checking, savings and certificates of deposits, lending, cash management, online and mobile banking, e-statements, remote deposit capture, financial calculators, and customer service center. It also offers agricultural real estate loans, production finance, equipment financing and leasing, development loans, long-term fixed rate, SBA and USDA loans, valley small business guaranteed loans, USDA B&I loans, farmer mac loans, and cal-cap loans. The company was founded on May 19, 2008 and is headquartered in Visalia, CA.

About Five Star Bancorp

Five Star Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Five Star Bank that provides a range of banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, and individuals in Northern California. It accepts various deposits, such as money market accounts, noninterest-bearing and interest checking accounts, savings accounts, term certificate accounts, and time deposits. The company also offers loan products, including commercial and residential real estate loans; commercial loans; commercial land loans; farmland loans; commercial and residential construction loans; and consumer and other loans, as well as operating lines of credit. In addition, it provides debit cards; and remote deposit capture, online and mobile banking, and direct deposit services. Five Star Bancorp was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California.